Burning Alive
by BruHaeven
Summary: Wutai burns. loss . Yuffie disappears. revenge . Vincent searches. love .  Yuffentine. Rated M for language.
1. Prologue

AN: So, I realized that I've never really done a long Yuffentine fic before (Yuffie and Her Playstation aside, because that's really just fun-filled, fluffery drabbles XD). Anyway, once I realized that I'd never done a long Yuffentine fic, I then realized that I WANTED to do a long Yuffentine fic... and here I am. I want to write something epically, superly-duperly long. Something adventure-filled-yet-relationship-fueled. Something fluff-filled-yet-serious. Somethine funny-yet-thought-provoking. Something Yuffentiney. There may be a bit of a love-triangle later on, but at heart this will be a Yuffentine. If you don't like that, please leave. All flames will be used to toast marshmallows, thankyouverymuch XD And by the way, this ignores DoC because I hate Shelke and don't feel like dealing with her. So nyah.

Disclaimer: Square has still not agreed to sell Final Fantasy VII to me. Apparently, my soul is not enough payment. But don't worry! I'll think of something else, just you wait!

* * *

Yuffie woke up to the acrid smell of smoke stinging her senses. She immediately jerked up from her bed, the fog of sleep fading within the time it took her to reach her window. What she saw sent her heart plummeting to her feet.

The Pagoda was burning. Orange and ruby tendrils licked up its sides and awfulawfulawful black smoke poured from its roof, smothering the night. But it wasn't just the Pagoda that was consumed in flames, no; all the houses she could see from her perch above the town were also ablaze. She could hear explosions, like dragon shrieks, tearing her village apart. She could hear screaming and sobbing and choking. It took her a moment to realize the sounds were coming from her own throat. It was then that she felt the heat at her own door, recognized that her house had not been spared.

Yuffie's brain flew into overdrive. She quickly shed her pajamas and tossed on the first pair of shorts and shirt she could find. She stuffed her feet into her unnecessarily large boots, not even bothering to tie them yet, grabbed her Conformer and flung her lithe body out the window and onto the unwelcoming ground below.

She stole silently along the outskirts of town, staying out of the light thrown by the blazing remnants of her village. She felt her chest burning, felt tears streaming down her face, but at that moment it seemed all emotion escaped her comprehension. Her goal was to reach her father's house, even knowing that it would be in the same-dying-shape as the rest of Wutai. If she could get there, make sure Godo was safe and, Leviathan, figure out what the _hell_ was going on—

Her legs pumped faster and faster, taking her through the trees, up the hill and then she skidded to halt, rubber soles chafing on the uneven cobblestone of the sacred courtyard. The Pagoda was a great, horrible vision, a beacon of fire silhouetted against the hate-black night. It would be rather poetic if it weren't _her village, her town, her people, her Pagoda, her traditions, her __**life**_.

For a moment, the flames blinded her, bathing her figure in a golden, flickering glow. And for a moment, just a moment, she allowed her heart to grieve.

_Who could do this? Not even dirty Shin-Ra went this far, not even—_

A hand encircled her wrist, yanking her back from the open courtyard and into the trees again.

"_Yuffie!_" The haunted eyes of her father greeted her as she spun and reeled, trying to make sense of everything.

"Dad! What the hell is—"

"No _time_, Yuffie! Get _out! _Run and don't come back! Not until we know it's safe!"

The disturbed look in her father's eyes told her it would be her death to argue. So she gulped, drew him into one too-short, too-tight embrace, and took off into the darkness. She didn't even chance a look back at the destruction of her village. All she would be left with was the smell of smoke and the image of the fiery Pagoda, seared into her memory.

.xxx.

It wasn't often that Vincent Valentine stayed with Tifa and Cloud in Edge. He normally preferred to spend his days quietly in the Shin-Ra Mansion, or occasionally taking the odd bounty-hunting job to rid a civilian of a particularly pesky monster. Yet, once a year, the newly-married couple housed all of AVALANCHE for a party celebrating the anniversary of when Meteor was destroyed. So, once a year, Vincent spent a few days in Edge, catching up with his comrades and enjoying their festivities. He usually wasn't very involved in the actually partying, but he showed up, and that was what mattered.

It was the sixth anniversary. Six years since Meteor and four since the Remnants. Everyone had gathered, save for Yuffie. It was this thought that Vincent, ironically, woke up to. His peace and quiet would soon be over, because the most chipper (and loudmouthed) member of AVALANCHE was set to arrive that evening.

Tifa was all smiles throughout the morning, chatting animatedly about how excited she was for Yuffie to finally get there. Being the only two women remaining in AVALANCHE had forged an unbreakable bond of sisterhood, Vincent supposed. Although he wasn't sure that twenty-two year old Yuffie could really be considered a woman yet, he thought with a quiet chuckle.

Then Tifa turned on the morning news. And Vincent stopped laughing. And the room went silent as a grave.

Wutai was burning.

_"No word on the cause yet,"_ a reporter was saying, _"And no help has been able to get through to the island country since the distress call went out, early this morning."_

"Oh my god…" Tifa breathed. Cloud was standing solemnly in the corner as Barrett and Cid both started in with curse-filled exclamations. Nanaki began pacing and Reeve immediately began placing calls into his office. The silence in the room was broken only by his frustrated ranting.

"Yes, I **know** this situation is still developing, but **goddammit **I'm the President and I should have heard about this—no, **don't** try to calm me down! There are innocent people over there and—well fuck you too!" He slammed the slim phone down on the bar and ran a hand through his hair. Silence reigned yet again, and then…

"We have to go there."

All eyes turned to Tifa, standing defiant and strong, hands on her hips.

"We have to go make sure Yuffie and her family and her people are okay."

Cid immediately perked up. "Well, _fuck_, what are we waiting for? I've got the _Shera _tuned up and ready to fly, let's get our asses in gear and go!"

"Tifa isn't going anywhere." This time everyone focused their attention on Cloud, and a confused tension filled the air. The couple was staring at each other, seemingly locked in a silent battle. Vincent felt a small pang in his stomach as he realized that Yuffie would be laughing at them if she were present, cracking jokes about a lust-filled staring contest or some such nonsense.

It seemed that a victor had been determined, as Tifa finally glanced away and sighed quietly. "He's right…" She conceded, "I shouldn't go anywhere where there might be fighting…" She paused, and regret filled her features, "I had wanted to tell you all at a happier time but… I'm pregnant."

There were whistles from Cid and Barrett and quiet congratulations from Reeve, Vincent and Nanaki. The barmaid mustered up a small smile. "Get Yuffie here safe. Then we can really celebrate."

It was then that Reeve's voice cut in. "I think it would be best…" he paused as if testing the words in his mind before speaking them aloud. It was something he often did, a habit he could never seem to break, but Vincent liked that about him. Reeve was hardly ever hasty. "I think it would be best," he began again, "If Cid were to take only one person to Wutai." At the shouts of protest, he simply held up his hands. "Let me explain my reasoning. We don't know what the situation is. We don't know if this is a terrorist strike, a political attack, or an unfortunate environmental event. But I know for a fact that if all… six of us go running in there, guns blazing, things could get messy. So I suggest we send one person in, as more of a stealth operation. To try and glean as much information as possible, or to simply find Yuffie and get here safely to Edge. Either way, we cannot afford to make a large scene until we know exactly what is going on."

So, while the comrades certainly weren't happy about that particular course of action, Reeve _was_ the President—which didn't automatically give him authority, but it did certainly give him credibility. And that credibility was how Vincent found himself on the _Shera_, flying towards Wutai.

It had been reasoned out that Cloud needed to stay with Tifa, Barrett needed to be around for Marlene, Reeve was going to be tied up in making statements to the people of Edge and Nanaki would stick out like a sore thumb. Cid had point-blank refused to leave his airship alone anywhere where it might end up spontaneously in flames.

"I love the brat to death," he had admitted gruffly, "but that airship is worth more to me than anything, 'cept maybe my firstborn."

It was with heavy hearts that AVALANCHE had separated. Tifa and Vincent had locked gazes before the hatch of the airship closed. Her eyes begged him to bring Yuffie home. His silently promised that he would do just that.

He just hoped he'd be bringing her home _alive_.

.xxx.

Someone was following her. Yuffie knew it. She could sense it in her very core. Whether that someone was friend or foe, she hadn't a clue. And then she scoffed to herself. Friend? She didn't have friends, not in Wutai at least… not anymore.

It had taken her a while to reach Da Chao, not because she didn't have the paths memorized and engrained in the very tissues of her heart—because she did—but because the light cast by her flaming village reached far, and she was working desperately to remain hidden in the inky shadows.

Especially now that someone was following her. She had run in circles all over the great craggy statues, for hours and hours and hours and hours until she felt like time was just running together in one very long, very awful second. Each round of the mountains took her back to the same place. The Fire Caves. The birthplace of her most favorite piece of Materia—except for Knights of the Round, obviously—Steal As Well.

The petite ninja knew, **knew** within her heart of hearts, that if she could get into the Fire Caves, she would be safe, at least for a little while. It struck her as ironic that the same thing that destroyed her village, her life, is what could possibly save her in that moment. There was a small problem though. Her Leviathan Scales were sitting in a secret compartment of her basement. Out of sight, out of reach, out of luck.

Yuffie was never out of luck. She had always refused to let herself be. She **was** Lady Luck, anytime, anywhere and right then, she decided, was no exception. She sucked in a deep breath.

"I make my own luck, anyway." She mumbled. And threw herself across the flames. And bit back the anguished cry of pain as her skin began to sizzle. After all, it wouldn't do for her to give away her position, even if it did feel like she'd just doused herself in gasoline and sat on a lit match.

Instead, Yuffie bit her tongue until she tasted copper and stopped, dropped and rolled for all she was worth. When she finally came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to die—at least not yet and at least not from being burned to a crisp—Yuffie stopped rolling around and sat up gingerly. She didn't want to look at her own body, didn't want to see the second-or-third-degree burns that she could achingly **feel** peppering her flesh. So she glanced around the cave to distract herself.

Yet all she could think was 'What the hell happened to my poor, poor Wutai?'

.xxx.

AN: Well? Would YOU like to find out what the hell happened to her poor, poor Wutai? Would YOU like to get to the awesomeness that will be the upcoming Yuffentiney-goodness in this story? Would YOU like me to tell you how awesome you are and how much I love you? Then send me a review! And add this story to your alerts of course! XD

And btw... as I write this, it's sort of late...ish. So if my tenses got a little messed up in this chapter, I apologize. I tried to fix them, but my brain is currently filled with goo and all the angsty Yuffie/SqLeon Kingdom Hearts fics I've been reading lately. Also, in the future, chapters will be longer than this... this is just a taster. Muahahaha!

~Bru


	2. Chapter 1

AN: Dear Readers, I have missed you greatly. It is on this joyous eve, the eve of not only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (at least in the US) as well as the eve of my birth, many years ago… that I bring you a new chapter. Basically, because HP rocks and birthdays rock and you guys all rock and I have finally (maybe?) gotten over the devastation that will be referred to as Laptop-Gate (I don't even know if that make sense, but I'm going with it) I decided I owed you guys a little something-something. So here is the newest chapter of Burning Alive! Abbreviated as BA, which is kinda BA XD

Disclaimer: I still own…. Nothing! Square wouldn't even give me VII for my birthday =(

.xxx.

There are times when life really freaking sucks. And I mean that in the most serious of ways. I've lived through some of the suckiest times Gaia has ever seen, I know these things. First off, there was the Wutai-Shin-Ra War, which not only nearly destroyed my country, but took my mother from me. No one can tell me that didn't suck. Then, there was Sephiroth and Meteor, of course. Terrifying _and_ sucky _and _it took Aeris, who was like the sister I never had. Then the Glamour Triplets and giant Robo-Bird-Bahamut.

Yet none of those could compare to the absolute and total suckiness of my current situation. Wutai wasn't just damaged or set back this time. Wutai was gone. Wutai was a pile of ashes at the bottom of a mountain that would blow away in the wind, never to be seen again. And I had no idea why.

We had been rebuilding ourselves after the war and Sephiroth and Geostigma. We had been on the road to recovery and good things and now? All that had been torn away. Adding insult to injury was the fact that I was holed up in a stupid cave, covered in burns, not knowing whether my father was dead or alive and totally separated from my friends who were miles away and probably worried sick about me. So I think, in that moment, I was completely justified in throwing myself a little pity and thinking that life really. Freaking. Sucked.

I cried a little bit. I'll admit it. I think under the circumstances, it was completely understandable. But once I had wiped the tears and salt and snot off my face, I began to think. And plan.

I've never been good at planning things. I always get bored. I'm more of a "let's run in, gun's blazing first and plan later!" kind of girl. I think though, somewhere deep in my gut, I knew that this situation was different. This time I was going to need some good planning and info reconnaissance if I was going to get to the bottom of what had been done to my beloved country. But more than just solving the mystery, solving the crime… I wanted revenge. Whoever had done this was going to pay… and big time.

I've never really been a vengeful person. I didn't go after Sephiroth with Cloud and Co. because he killed my mother. I went because they had _really _good Materia and I wanted it. And then… I went because I liked all those crazy kids, and wanted to see it through to the end with them.

That was always the kicker about AVALANCHE. Once you joined up, they really got under your skin, ya know? Cloud with his big-time leader, motivating speeches, Tifa with her elegance and grace and total kick-assness, Aeris with her kind words and kinder laugh, Barrett and his lovable disregard for tact and fierce devotion to Marlene, Cid and his cigs and cursing, Reeve and his crazy-ass mechanical cat that you could never decide whether you wanted to cuddle or beat against the wall, Red and his all-encompassing knowledge about _everything_, and Vinnie and his silences.

They were such a rag-tag team, a real group of characters that you'd never expect to mesh together but somehow did completely. And once you've had a taste of that companionship, no friendship ever feels the same.

I'd found my place with them. I had always been kind of an outcast, even as a princess. Separated from the regular kids my age by my rank, separated from the noble kids by my uncontrollable spazz-fests… and yet with AVALANCHE I managed to find a niche. Tifa and Aeris loved me and taught me about being girly. Cloud and Barrett and Cid and Reeve came to see me as a little sister… an obnoxious one, granted, but family nonetheless. Red and I were like total opposite twins, him with all the intelligence and me with all the recklessness. And Vincent… Vinnie….

Anyway, the point is, I _belonged _with them. I grew into myself with them. And by the time our journey was over, I was ready to return home as a new and improved Yuffie. I fit in better with my dad, even though I was possibly even spazzier than before, but I think my hope in humanity had been restored during Meteor. I knew that Wutai could be rebuilt, and I knew I could be the one to do it. I had hope.

But that morning, as I sat on the cold, hard floor of the Fire Caverns and my brain whirled in overdrive, thinking and planning, I felt no hope. I felt as cold as the stone beneath my Yuffie-butt. Somewhere inside me, a teeny, tiny flame burned. It wasn't hope; it was fury.

I was alone. Totally and completely and, again, it _sucked_. If I was more eloquent, if I had better words… I could've described it better. But I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, and I use the words grossness and gawd and so "sucked" was the best I could do. Sometimes, it's the best anyone can do.

I had been told to stay away from Wutai "until it was safe." Well. I never was very good at following directions, and how the hell was I supposed to know when it was safe? Was I supposed to sit around waiting for a memo? I didn't plan on wasting my time. The first thing I was going to do was wait until night fell again and head back to survey the damage. At the very least, I needed to see what was left of my house and see if I could scrounge up any supplies. Some Materia definitely wouldn't hurt.

Then I was going to try and get in touch with Edge, see if Reeve had any info for me. Being all Presidential and whatnot, I figured he'd probably have _something_. And, unfortunately, I was probably going to start needing a disguise. If my country had been attacked as some sort of political or terrorist thing, and it got out that I'd survived, I was going to be Target Numero Uno to my enemies.

A year or two before, I probably would've been excited by the prospects of having to ninja about again. Disguises, secret political plots, danger, adventure… what could be more exciting, right? Yet… I was the Great Ninja Yuffie. I can make excitement out of thin air… and I certainly didn't need my country to be burned to the ground to get my kicks.

I felt… lethargic. Detached. Furious, but subdued. I think maybe I was just tired, or in shock, or something. But I definitely didn't feel like myself, and I didn't like it.

Night fell, and I threw myself across the flames again, managing to emerge slightly less singed this time. I stole down the mountain, heart hammering in my chest and eyes darting every which way. Every nighttime noise seemed like a threat, and the light of the moon offered no solace or peace.

It did, however, provide enough illumination for me to see just how bad Wutai looked. Godo's palace was nothing more than a few planks of charred wood and the Turtle's Paradise was just the scorched and singed remains of the sign and all the trees were gone and thePagodathePagodathePagoda was gone and burnt to ash and wisping away in the wind and nothing of its glory remained. My house was gone too; just one wall and the basement left to tell of its existence. Most of the other houses in town were in the same condition. The brunt of the attack and the worst of the damage seemed to be focused on the Pagoda and the palace. I filed this away for further thought—it likely meant a political strike, not a random, psychopathic destructive one.

Dropping down into the sorry remnants of my basement, I kicked at rubble and debris, searching for anything of use. Processing and pain would come later; right now there was only kick, search, chuck away, kick, search, chuck away. No one had come through and looted, it seemed they had just torched the place and gotten out of dodge. Again, I processed this and moved on. I found some high-level offensive and curative Materia hidden away in a corner, along with some X-potions and phoenix downs I had taken to keeping handy.

My heart was beating out an awful rhythm against my ribcage. _Politics_, it beat, _this is all because of Politics_. Politics… the one thing I had been gawd-awful at, even with Godo guiding my hand.

It was then, as I was hauling myself out of the hole I used to call a basement, that the fury ignited. How _dare_ anyone do this to my Wutai? To me? I had helped to save the world, not once but twice. My Wutai had already been almost decimated once before in recent memory and now some people thought they could wipe us out completely? Well. They were dead wrong. I was going to see to that. On my honor as ninja, on my loyalty to Wutai and on my abso-fucking-lute stubbornness as a Kisaragi, they were going to _pay_.

I felt the urge to kill something. Or someone. The overwhelming need for violence came flooding through my veins as surely as my lifeblood, and I was lost to instinct. Fight or flight and my body was saying both, following both. Sprinting away from the ruins of my home and into the outskirting forests that had been left intact, I unleashed Conformer on any living creature that crossed my path. Monsters came, monsters fell and I was drenched in blood and sweat and pain. I think… somewhere along the way I started crying again. I don't remember too clearly, though. I do remember fire and ice and lightning flying from my hands until my fingertips cracked and bled and my mana was whimpering for a break. Then my shuriken took wing again.

Images flickered through my mind's eye, running amok in the palace courtyard as a toddler, playing with all my cats in my house when I had moved out, fighting my way to the top of the Pagoda, Godo watching with pride in his eyes as I delivered the final blow to him, Mama smiling as I showed her all the shinies I had stolen over the week and then making me return everything, training with Gorki and Shake and learning to wield my first kunai and everything began to bleed together but at the center was .

There was a distant roaring in my ears, a thudding pulse reverberating in my temples and copper stinging on my tongue. I ignored all of this and watched metal and magic soar around me. It wasn't until the ground came crashing up to meet me, that I realized I had overreached my energy. My knees collided with dirt, and my palms followed shortly after. I wheezed like an asthmatic chocobo on its last leg, and found myself praying in that moment that something would just come along and kill me. Death would even be better than dealing the long, hard road I knew was waiting for my feet to begin walking it.

Death didn't find me. Something much better did.

.xxx.

I don't know how long I was out for, but I came to with the distinct feeling of being watched. Forcing my face out of the dirt and my feet back underneath me, I took a defensive stance, glaring into the darkness, Conformer at the ready.

There was silence. I was tired, and didn't feel like waiting. When did I ever, really?

"Come out, come out… Let's get this show over with." It was muttered under my breath, through gritted teeth. My eyes glared through inky bangs caked with dust. The fury was back to being a meager little spark, exhaustion replacing its raw strength. A leaf shuffled under my watcher's feet and my hand tightened around Conformer.

Seeing Vincent Valentine emerge from the night-shadowed trees filled me with a relief so strong it nearly brought me to my knees again. A gasp tore at my throat, and traitorous tears leapt down my cheeks again.

"Oh gawd…._Vinnie_." My lips worshiped the name of one so familiar and before I even knew I had moved, I was curled against his chest trying to claw my way into his very _soul_.

I think I probably would've ended up with a few rounds from Death Penalty in my brain if I had tried that little maneuver at a time when my life wasn't crumbling around me. After all, Vinnie Valentine was not exactly known for being Mr. Touchy-Feely. This time? Vincent simply wrapped his arms around me, a little awkwardly I will admit, and tried as hard as he could to be comforting. He didn't seem to care that I was crying and snotting and sliming all over his cloak, he just rubbed small circles into my back with his good hand.

"Oh, _gawd_, Vincent how could this happen? Who could do this?" I began babbling questions that he could not possibly have an answer to, word-vomiting and sobbing and mewling like a newborn kitten. It felt so _good_ to just squeeze his lanky frame between my scrawny arms and breathe in the smell of gunpowder and leather that was as much a part of Vincent and his ruby eyes and silences. It was something familiar, a rock in the middle of a storm.

I think in that moment, he saved me. My sanity, or lack thereof, which had been slowly being eaten up by the fury and isolation, came rushing back hitting me like a ton of bricks. With my returned sanity came the realization that I was covering Vincent-Freaking-Valentine in some of my more grossness-affiliated bodily fluids and the immediate need to pull away from him so as to prevent further grossness from occurring.

I stared up at him with wide eyes, my body almost pained by the separation from someone so safe and familiar and comforting. It began to dawn on me that Vincent really was _there_ with me. I wasn't alone anymore. He wasn't a figment of my imagination that was going to disappear in a moment of clarity.

My fingers shook as I stretched them out to touch his chest ever so slightly. The red material beneath my fingers was soft and wet from drinking up my tears.

"You are…. Unharmed?" His voice was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard and his silence more painful than usual.

"Umm… probably some good second- and third-degree burns and an amount of emotional trauma that would make a shrink very, very happy to have me as a client… other than that I think I'm okay."

His eyes were sadder than normal as he looked at me, but I couldn't see any pity in them, thankfully. "What would you like to do now? Cid dropped me off earlier in the day. I could call him to take us back to the mainland unless you have… other plans."

I sighed a sigh for the world-weary. "Does Reeve have any information about who could've done this? About what might have spurred the attack? About _anything_?"

"Not as of a few hours ago. If this was a political attack it has been handled with the utmost secrecy and professionalism. But Reeve is looking as hard as he can."

"Do you…" I gulped before plunging on ahead with the tough questions, "have you heard anything about Godo?"

Again, Vincent shook his head. "You haven't…?"

I sighed, scrubbing at my eyes and sitting my Yuffie-butt down in the dirt. I was too tired to stand but needed answers too badly to move to a better location to talk. "I saw him the night of the attacks. He made me get out of there pretty much as soon as he laid eyes on me… told me not to come back until it was safe. I got into the Fire Caverns, without Leviathan's Scale, hence the burns. I stayed there for the rest of the night and the next day… came out to survey the damage as soon as the sun set. Gawd, I'm a fucking _coward_."

I was filled with spite for myself and my selfish actions. If Wutai was to go down, then I should have burned with it. What did I have if I didn't have my culture and my home and my heritage?

Vincent knelt in front of me, placing both hands on my shoulders. "Yuffie, without you Wutai has no future at all… No chance of ever being rebuilt. You are not a coward. You never will be a coward. By you surviving the attack, you can rebuild and reshape and Wutai will flourish again."

"I'm just so _sick_ of having to start over, Vincent! When does it end? When will Wutai finally be given a fighting chance to be a world power again? Or at least the chance to be left in peace?" I was up and whirling again, flailing and whining and breaking apart. I've never been good at staying still. I've always been even worse at it when I'm in pain.

"We were finally, _finally_ getting somewhere! We had saved up enough money, begun exporting and importing and having an economy that wasn't dependent on tourists! We were going to have tradition again and honor and training our youth in the way of the ninja! The Pagoda was going to be a powerhouse again! It's not as though we were going to declare war on anyone as soon as we were strong again, we were going to keep that strength for ourselves and our culture and our people and our lives! It's just so _fucking __**unfair**_!" A stray throwing star found its way to my fist and was promptly embedded in the nearest tree I could hurl it at.

And Vincent, Leviathan bless him, just stood watching with empathy on his face and comfort in his eyes and let me throw my tantrum and scream out my anguish.

That's the great thing about Vinnie. He never pushes. He just kind of sits there and lets you do your thing and then maybe he'll subtly and gently correct you if you're wrong, but you won't even realize he's correcting you because he's _just that tactful_. And then he'll offer his empathies—never sympathies, because that's pity and gawd knows Vinnie knows how much pity sucks—and then he'll move on as soon as you're ready to.

You see, all throughout Meteor, Vincent and I got paired together. We work well together and we know each other really well, too. And he knows that in a crisis, Yuffie needs to vent and flail about and be angry and basically become the emotional equivalent of a Mach-five hurricane, or something. In that way, Vincent's the best.

"Do you know what you want to do, Yuffie?" Like that, see? He didn't ask me what I wanted to do, which would have demanded an answer… he simply asked if I knew what I wanted to do. That asks for much less specifics, and is a much better question for someone in hysterics, in my not-so-humble opinion.

"I think…. I want to camp out for a night and think about things. I mean, Vince, I _know_ this is political. The pagoda and the palace were in way worse shape than anything else and it just…. This whole thing just _stinks_ of politics. So just. Give me a night. And tomorrow morning I'll have an answer for you."

He just graced me with a silent nod, and began unpacking a tent from the bag at his feet that I had completely failed to notice.

I sighed, again. "Feels like the old days, doesn't it Vinnie? Just you, me and old Mother Nature. Throw in a nice helping of Sucky Situation and we've got ourselves a fair heaping of déjà vu."

"I'm sorry that this has happened to you, and to Wutai."

My bottom lip wobbled precariously. "S'okay, Vinnie. I'll make it right… somehow. I'll get through it."

We settled into the tent together, and it really was just like old times. I curled up way in the back corner while Vincent sat vigilantly towards the tent flap. There was nothing remotely romantic or scandalous about the set-up—it was one we had shared hundreds of times before.

Vincent's a beautiful man, don't get me wrong… and not too long ago my heart would've been banging out of my chest at the mere thought of the hug we had shared earlier. But at that moment, on that night, all I could think about was my devastated country and what I was going to do to fix things. I hadn't seen any survivors on my trip through town, and while many could have been hiding in the forest like me, I didn't have my hopes up.

"There's something that might lift your spirits, at least a little." Vincent murmured from over by the flap.

"Huzzat?" I choked out, focusing on casting a decent Cure2 on myself.

"Tifa and Cloud are going to be parents."

My brain froze. And then I smiled my first real smile since my home had disappeared in a night of fire. My heart swelled to what felt like an immeasurable size and I was overcome with happiness.

"A baby…" I breathed with a reverence I had never before felt for children in my entire life. He nodded, and in the shadows I could see the smallest outline of a smile on his lips too.

"Oh, Teef must be so excited! And Cloud has _got_ to be scared shitless! Ooh, I hope it's a girl! Double PMS every month as payback for all the crap he put Tifa through when they were first dating, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!"

It took my mind off my predicament to think of all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful changes that would soon take place in Cloud and Tifa's life together. I'm sure that's what Vinnie's intentions were in mentioning it, and it definitely worked.

However, it also had another effect that I don't think he was banking on… an effect that I don't think he ever could have seen coming.

As Vincent drifted off to sleep near the door, I stayed awake thinking of tiny toddlers with Chocobo hair and gleaming, garnet eyes. I thought of my friends back home, and the one sleeping mere feet from me… and how they meant the world to me, even when my world was falling apart. And I realized that as much as I loved and wanted their support just then… I couldn't have it.

We had already helped to save the entire world twice, and I didn't want to put them in any more danger just to save my tiny corner of it a third time. I knew I was going to need help with this issue… and I knew where to get it, too. But it wasn't going to be from my nearest and dearest friends. They had lives and families at stake… and I refused to put those at risk in the face of someone or something who would torch an entire city under the cover of darkness without a second thought.

Quiet as a Yuffie-mouse, I sat up in my bedroll and searched for what I needed in my bag. One note explaining and a powerful Sleep spell later, and I was stealing away from Vinnie's tent, praying to Leviathan with all my heart that he wouldn't wake up and Death Penalty my skinny ass before I had a chance to get away.

At dawn, I knew, a big fishing barge would pass by the very northern tip of Wutai. It came by every morning, without fail, on its way toward Rocket Town, and I was going to hitch a ride.

My country may have been completely torched as part of some political attack. But I was going to get to the bottom of it. I was going to find out who had done this, and get my revenge. And I was going to do it without putting my friends in danger.

.xxx.

Dawn came, and I swam out to meet the boat. I climbed aboard as stealthily as I could manage with a bad case of seasickness and settled in to wait.

Renting a golden chocobo in Rocket Town cost me a pretty penny, but was necessary and I was headed for Edge by noon.

I knew Vinnie would follow me as soon as he could, so in Costa del Sol, I put together my disguise. I dyed my hair a hideous shade of blonde and began torturing my eyes with some pretty-colored green contacts. The Wutaiian shape of my face would be harder to hide and I would need some actual, heavy-duty tools to do it, so I settled for completely changing up my wardrobe from its usual staples of short-shorts, giant boots and tiny little vests and applying way too much makeup. Then, I hopped back on my golden chocobo and kept heading east.

By nightfall, I was in Edge, shoving my way through the bustling, cranky crowds and pickpocketing anyone who bumped me too hard. Hey, deposed princess here, gotta make a living somehow so I can rebuild my country!

It felt good to be taking action, to have a direction that I was moving towards.

I knew the apartment's location from memory. Lesson one of being a ninja is always know where your enemy is, at all times. At least… I think that was lesson one. And while, not necessarily my enemy anymore, per se… some addresses you just know to keep handy. This was one of them.

The security system was disappointingly easy to get around, AKA: all I had to do was scale the building's outer wall, flip up onto the balcony, pick a lock and I was in. I suppose when you're considered one of the most dangerous human beings around, you don't need to splurge on fancy intruder alarms.

I had hardly taken five steps into the apartment when he found me. I hadn't expected to get much farther than that, to be honest. Rule number two of being a ninja is never underestimate your enemy. Or something.

"So… Princess. What did I do to get this pleasant surprise?"

I sighed, turning to face his languid figure leaning against the doorframe to his bedroom.

"Turkey… Believe me. I wouldn't be here unless I absolutely had to."

Reno smirked slowly before moving to join me in his living room.

"Well then, how can I help you?"

The word slipped off my tongue, completely unplanned and one-hundred percent true. "Revenge."

.xxx.

AN: Well, there it is! Don't worry, this is most definitely going to be a Yuffentine, but…. We're going to make things a little difficult for our favorite couple for a bit. I can't just give you the fluff right out, that would be… too easy XD Anyway, keep reading for the awesome Yuffentine-y fluff and love that will be coming in future chapters, and PLEASE if you never review another chapter, please review today because it is my birthday and I will love you forever. Shout outs to: **Ninja-Yuffie92, Blackstorm808, CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, JingYee, Omega Warrior 42, Kurogane7, Starbrightdreamer, SheDevil85, Sith's Shadow and serenbach! **You are all fabulous for being so patient with me and my angsty self, and I love you all from the deepest depths of my heart.

Also, as always, any mistakes are my own because I don't have a beta, and write when I am very tired and silly. I apologize.

~Bru


	3. Chapter 2

AN: So, I said it before that in this fic I'm pretending DoC never happened, however I'm not ignoring the WRO. Any changes I've made to the new government in Gaia are deliberate, so please don't get upset with me if you feel like I'm not following canon as closely as I should. Sometimes I just like to change things up and make little references that make me (and hopefully you) smile. If you're gonna flame or give constructive criticism, let it be for something directly related to my writing skill (or lack thereof), not itty bitty story details, yeah? Obviously, if I'm way off on characterization or something huge like that, that's something to point out. Now let's get this show on the road!

Disclaimer: Square still owns everything, and I still own nothing. Except Hans, the janitor.

.xxx.

Just by the by, if anyone else had been able to see the Yuffie-ness of me underneath my gawd-awful blonde dye-job and scratchy, way-too-covered new attire… I probably would've ninja-ed their ass right away. Or subjected them to Wutaiian Ice Cube Torture which, believe me, is something that you'd never wanna be on the receiving end of. Facing a PMSing, Midol-less Tifa is less scary.

However, if Reno _hadn't_ been able to totally see past my disguise, I probably would've first revoked his Turk-ness because, _hello_, they're supposed to be the baddest of the bad and the sneakiest of the sneaky, and then I probably would've just killed him to save his rep as a Turk. Or taken out an ad in the newspaper to advertise his failings… both had major possibilities.

Anyway, the point was that I wasn't thrown off when Reno immediately knew it was me—if he hadn't then he totally was _not_ the person to help me out. I was more thrown by the way he was looking at me, all calm and cunning and calculated. I kinda felt like he was x-raying me with his eyes, but looking way into my _soul_ or something equally as cheesy, not looking through my clothes at the naughty bits—which he probably wouldn't have minded either… perv.

It made me feel ickily vulnerable and all sorts of associated grossness, and I could feel my metaphorical hackles rising the longer he kept staring at me.

"Well?" I demanded, sounding every decibel the annoying brat Cid always told me I was. Defense mechanism, ya know? Some people run away or cry, I get loud and obnoxious. It's all part of my royal charm.

"Revenge, huh? So how come you ain't calling in Strife and Co. to deal with it? That's what you good guys do, yeah? Help each other out in times of need and all that shit."

I fidgeted with the hem of my new shirt, feeling like the kid who got caught with their hand in the materia jar. "'Cause…. Someone might get hurt. Killed even. I don't know what kind of situation I'm getting myself into, but I do know it's bad. Like giant mutant army of angry, zombified Tonberries bad."

He just quirked a coppery eyebrow. "And…?"

"And I'm not putting my friends in that kind of danger! They've all got lives now… married, kids, kids on the way, et cetera, et cetera. I actually care what happens to them."

He slapped a hand over his heart, feigning hurt. "Princess! I'm wounded… you don't care what happens to your good, old Reno?"

I rolled my eyes so hard I think I saw stars for a second. "Gawd, Reno…. YES, it's been six years since the last time you tried to beat us all to death with that oversized vibrator you call a weapon, but I still care WAY more about my friends than I do about your pasty, freckled ass! Plus, you're a TURK for gawd-sakes! Danger and revenge and fire and exploding things are, like, what you _do!_ So I'm sorry if I hurt your tender Turkey feelings, but are you gonna help me or not?"

He sighed a sigh of the world-weary, which, looking around at his apartment and the whole super-niceness of it, he should not be sighing, and then stuck out a hand. "I'm in, Princess. What's the plan?"

I grasped his hand briefly. It was… surprisingly un-calloused. I guess Turkeys moisturize or something. Shoving weird thoughts out of my head, I got down to business.

…I _do_ know how to be serious when I need to be, okay? …Most of the time, at least.

"Okay," I began, starting to pace. Cooping hyperactive ninjas up is always a bad. "One of us needs to get any information that Reeve, or… I dunno, just whatever the mainland government may have on what happened to Wutai. I'm guessing that since you don't live under a rock, you saw what happened. If we can't get anything good from the government here, we're probably gonna have to slum it, see if anyone lower on the food chain knows what's up. Or, we could do both at one time… you can take the slum recon and I can break into Reeve's headquarters, do the whole sneaky, ninja-ing about thing. Oh! But we're gonna have to get a move-on, 'cause Vinnie's on my tail, and he's all ex-Turk and sneaky too."

Reno had been listening intently, all arms crossed and unruffled and Turk-like, but when he heard that last bit he choked on a laugh. "You've got Valentine tailing you, yo? What'd you do, steal his straightening iron?"

Something in my chest stirred at Fire-crotch making fun of Vinnie. My loyalty to AVALANCHE runs deeper than my need for help from dumb Turkeys. "Hey! Vinnie has beautiful hair, okay? And it's all natural, so just shut up! And, _no_, I didn't steal anything you big… jerk-face. He came to help me, and I attacked him with a Sleep spell so he wouldn't follow me and then I ran away."

I had stopped pacing by now, just in time for Reno to start. Copy-cat.

"Wait, so let me get this straight, Princess… You had Vincent Valentine, dangerous, deadly, experienced ex-Turk coming to help you willingly… but instead, you attacked him and ran away to come get grudging help from me?"

"Well, duh! Remember? Giant army of zombified Tonberries bad? I _like_ Vinnie. I don't want him getting mixed up in my crazy, dangerous, political shenanigans. Knowing him, something would go wrong and I'd get hurt and he'd end up thinking it was his fault and getting all broody and moody and sin-obsessed again… or something."

He sighed another one of those long-suffering sighs. "You are a piece of work, Kisaragi." Aqua eyes lazered through me again. "And for some reason… I'm still gonna help you."

I smiled at him then. Not my typical, obnoxious, Kisaragi grin, but a real smile. With my dimples and everything. "That's my Turkey."

.xxx.

When Reevey-kins took over as President after the official fall of Shin-Ra, the real one where Rufus stepped down instead of pretending to be dead, he made a lot of changes, not the smallest one being the creation of the World Regenesis Organization. For a while, he tried to get me and Vinnie to join up with the WRO, but I was busy off doing Princessey leader-type things in Wutai, and I think Vincent had reached his lifetime quota of group-participation with first the Turks and then AVALANCHE. I think the Turks got shifted to some branch of the WRO too, only this time they're only killing bad people, not dropping huge metal plates on innocents or trying to kidnap flower girls or anything like that.

Anyhoo, the WRO is the branch of the Calm Incentive (which is what Reeve named the new, post-Shin-Ra government, and has nothing to do with the itty-bitty town) that's all responsible for making sure the world stays put back together after Sephiroth and Meteor and the Glamour Triplets. So, my train of thought went a little something like this. WRO is to world peace what Wutai is to burned down. Or something. The point is, if I was gonna get some information on what had happened, I wasn't gonna bother with any of the other corporate stuff; I was heading straight for the WRO.

Huh… maybe things would've been easier if I'd just taken Reeve up on joining. After all, it's not that hard to break into your own office.

Still, I wasn't worried about getting in. Honestly, I'm the Great Ninja Master Yuffie. If there is somewhere I want to get into, nothing can stop me. Except maybe giant armies of mutant, zombified Tonberries. …I think I have a complex.

So, while Reno was off doing his reconnaissance in the slummier parts of Edge, I was a few blocks away from the WRO, (impatiently) waiting for the sun to finally get its fiery behind below the horizon so I could scamper on in and start stealing some info. I was also keeping one hairy eyeball out for any crimson cloaks attached to pale complexions that might mean Vinnie had caught up to me.

It felt good to be taking action, to have a purpose. The closer I got to breaking into the WRO, the more the lethargy that had taken me hostage since Wutai burned began to melt away. Most of it was because I knew I was finally getting somewhere, but a small part of it was Reno, too. He's blunt and cocky and totally full of himself, and it's completely impossible to feel anything other than twitchy and annoyed in his presence. I guess I should've thanked him for the distraction.

Of course, being in Edge also carried with it the possibility that I might run into any of my other friends too. And if I saw any of them, especially Teef or Spikes, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep my disguised composure. I mean, those two were gonna have a _baby_! A cute, little, ass-kicking, spikey-haired baby! How was I supposed to not run over to them and shout a huge 'congratulations!'?

Thankfully, time managed to go by relatively fast and as the streetlamps began illuminating the night sky with their misty-blue light, it was closing time for the WRO office.

The Great Ninja Yuffmeister was in business.

The WRO building wasn't exactly impressive-looking from the outside. It had height, I'd give it points for that, but the rest… It was just dark brick and concrete with small, sucky-looking windows. It was actually pretty dreary… like everything else in that city. I swear to gawd, I dunno how someone as bright and warm as Teef can live there. It's just so… cold.

Anyway, sitting around cooling my ninja heels for so long had given me plenty of time to stroll by the building and get a rough map of its outside. Glass double-doors were my only ground entrance on the front, but there were a couple windows that looked promising if I got into a bind with other, less-conspicuous ways to get in. Flanking the office on one side was an auto-repair garage, and an alley looped around back on the other. I was hoping that would be my key to getting in.

Slipping into the shadows as sneakily as I could (which meant _very_), I started feeling along the darkened walls for a back door or way into the basement or something. I got luckier. At the very back of the building was a fire escape. Cliché, maybe, but it would get the job done. And besides, I've never shied away from a little cliché… it can make things all the more dramatic sometimes, dontcha know?

There was a camera too, but eyeballing it from a distance I could see it was all show and no go. Or something. Basically, it was there to ward off people like me, but it wasn't actually on and recording anything.

"Reeve must be getting stingy…" I muttered to myself.

With one last glance at the alley behind me, I scaled that puppy like a squirrel on crack and paused my Yuffie-butt outside the door at the top. Cold, hard, metal… steel, maybe? There was a number keypad lock on the outside, but that wouldn't be a problem for me. It was your typical, four-digit punch-code lock. I scoffed a bit at Reeve's lack of security. Then again, not everyone has my training and expertise, so maybe it would've done its job keeping out your average, run of the mill burglar. At my hip hung my ninja bag of goodies, and after a bit of rummaging around, I yanked out what I needed.

No, not a hairpin. That's a little _too_ cliché for my tastes, thank you very much. And it wouldn't have worked anyway, _hello, _keypad?

I took out a flashlight. You know how when you put your sticky little fingers all over a computer or TV screen you end up leaving greasy prints behind, and how when the light shines in just the right way, you can see every single fingerprint? It works just the same whenever you punch in a code on one of those high-tech keypads. Not as well, obviously, 'cause plastic doesn't always retain the prints as well as that liquid crystal stuff they use for everything, but it still works. Also, people? They're pretty consistent with how they type, or punch in little numbers in this case. Medium pressure on the first number, much lighter on the middle two and then hardest on the last one. And the finger-grease? Shows all that. So the first and last numbers are usually a piece of chocobo pie to figure out, and the alarm usually goes off after either three or five wrong attempts, so if you flip-flop the middle two numbers once, you're not totally out of business.

Because I'm awesome, however, I got in on my first try. Score one for the Yuffster!

If I had been smart, I would've had Reno hack into some server thing and pull up the plans for the building so I could know which offices to hit without wasting time. Especially because, I seriously doubted that the cameras on the inside of the building would be as fake and useless and the one on the outside. Problem was, there's no way in hell that Reno is that tech-savvy, and I've always been one for a run-in-guns-blazing approach anyway. So instead, I pulled a smoke grenade from my handy-dandy ninja pouch and chucked it into the shadowed office before throwing myself in after it.

I dove for the first table I saw, taking a rough lay of the land through the smoke-clouded gloom. Somersaulting my way across into the nearest hallway, all the while scanning for more cameras to avoid and making sure my hood stayed up. Naturally, I was dressed in black head to toe; it majorly washes me out, but it's the spirit of the thing, ya know? Besides, my bright yellow boots would've been a dead giveaway if, by some unlucky chance, I wound up caught on camera.

You know that whole, making my own luck thing I talked about a while ago? Well, it was still true. I dodged into the second room I came across (the first had been a janitor's closet, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't find anything useful in there), and what did I spy with my little eye?

The nameplate on the desk clearly stated: Janice Howard, Wutaiian Relations.

Score two for the Yuffster! And I was _so_ going to have to talk to Reeve about hiring an actual Wutaiian to be in charge of Wutaiian Relations. Just, ya know, as long as it didn't have to be me. Deposed princess, here! Busy getting revenge for my country.

So, with no apologies to Janice, I ripped open her filing cabinets that lined the back wall (people really should lock those, ya know) and began rifling through what looked like the most recent stuff. There was lots of info on exports and imports, a _huge_ file on yours truly, and not much in the way of who would be crafting diabolical plans to destroy my country. I was getting ready to leave, disappointed and dejected and really, _really_ frustrated, when something caught my eye.

Always look at the desk first, people. That's generally where the super recent stuff is.

Sitting there, innocent as could be, was a thin manila folder with the word PRIORITY stamped across it.

"Bingo..." I hissed as I picked it up with careful, gloved digits. Flipping the cover aside, I only managed to get a glimpse of a seriously skanky looking woman before a startled voice jerked me from my sneakiness.

"Hey! Who are you? What do you think you're doing in there?"

The damn janitor had found me! I knew I didn't like his closet for a reason! Tucking the folder under my arm, I ran by him, hollering apologies as I socked him in his paunchy face. I… may have put a little too much force behind the punch; it'd definitely take more than a few hours for him to wake up from that one. Dropping another smoke bomb behind me, I sprinted for the fire exit and flipped myself over the top ledge of the fire escape and out into empty air.

Yeah, I could've just scampered back down, but can you really blame a girl for wanting to fly?

.xxx.

Reno was waiting when I hurdled back up to his balcony. Illuminated by only the teensiest of red dots from the tip of his cigarette, his eyes gleamed feral in the darkness and his tattoos looked like harsh gashes across his cheeks. Kinda spooky, to be honest.

"'Sup, Turkey? Get anything useful?"

He sighed, and raked a hand through the crazed red chunks of hair having a spazz-attack on top of his head. "Nothing you're gonna be happy to hear, Princess. Did you find anything?"

I sauntered over to lean next to him, producing the folder for us to look at. "I only got a peek before the janitor caught me and I had to skedaddle, but it's all urgent and priority-filled, so I have a feeling we're heading in the right direction."

"Alright, kid. Let's head inside and talk this shit over, yo."

Once inside, I sprawled out across his couch, tossing my manila folder onto the cleanest part of his coffee table I could see. He promptly shoved my squawking ninja self onto the floor and settled his stupid Turkey butt in _my_ rightful place. Huffing, I hauled myself up to sit next to him, "accidentally" digging an elbow into his bony side as I settled in.

Flipping open the folder once more, I took in the photograph of skank-asaurous for the second time.

"Mitsuko Somo…" I felt heated rage shoot straight to my core as I looked at her face more closely. She had eyes that shone hard as granite and a quirk to her mouth that made my stomach twist in horrible ways. "The name's Wutaiian, but she doesn't really look it." She had the same black hair as me, but that was about the extent of our similarities.

"Well, Yuffs, you don't really look it either these days." He had a point. "And I've heard of her. She's bad news. Totally fucking crazy, for one thing, and she's got a rep for demonstrating it in bloody, messed up ways. Last I heard from any official source, she's got a Kill on Sight on her, which is probably why she doesn't look Wutaiian anymore. Gotta change up her appearance pretty frequently is my guess. All the slummers I could get to talk were saying she's been up to something lately. Apparently she's managed to get some funding which has led to her getting all sorts of new and fun toys. Explosives are a big favorite of hers, I heard."

"So it looks like she's my problem. I am _so_ gonna turn her into tonberry food when I find her! Either that or a big, ugly punching bag that I will use for target practice."

"Yuffie…. What the hell is up with you and tonberries?" He was giving me an odd look, but shook it off to continue. "Ugh, whatever, yo. The point is, this bitch is crazy, she's deadly and she's got some money behind her now. She's also incredibly smart on top of all that. This one's gonna be rough. Plus, you _do_ realize I'm kinda going against WRO rules by not getting clearance from Reeve for this, right?"

"You backing out on me, Turkey?" I set my teeth and glared, all business.

Reno just smirked at me, lighting a new cig. "And miss out on all the fun? Not on your life, Princess."

Sometimes Reno can be a royal pain in the ass, but if there's one thing I'll always appreciate about a person, it's when they see all the glorious fun to be had in breaking the rules.

.xxx.

I camped out on Reno's sofa that night. The dumb Turkey wasn't enough of a gentleman to let me take his bed, but I'm pretty sure I would've woken up having contracted gonorrhea via osmosis from his sheets if I had slept in it anyway, so no hard feelings there.

We had decided to take the night and rest, and head back to the slums the next day to hopefully find out where Mitsuko's bat-cave (skank-cave, I kept thinking inwardly) was. All reconnaissance, mind you. I may be reckless and I may like to crash in with only the barest amount of preparation, but there was no way I was taking on psycho-whore-face without a plan, and a damn good one at that.

Her folder hadn't had too much information on her, at least not a lot more than Reno hadn't already found out. Insane, kind of a pyro, likes death and blood and seeing people suffer, Kill on Sight, etc., etc. There was a list of old hideouts she'd had, and pretty detailed accounts of any WRO encounters with her, but nothing that gave away why she would want to blow Wutai away into little tiny pieces. There was also nothing about her family, which I found…weird. Usually that's the quickest and easiest way to get to someone… through their loved ones.

So, while Reno snored the hours away in the next room (believe me, I could hear him), I sat up thinking of all the torturous ways I could pay the bitch back for destroying my country. Wutaiian Ice Cube Torture was first on my list, followed by turning her into a human pincushion. With my throwing stars, obviously. And then dumping her in a vat of lemon juice. I could get a new collection of kitties and train them to be all vicious and scary towards great big skanks and then set them on her, or use Knights of the Round and Mime on an infinite loop until I was satisfied that she had been beaten to a bloody pulp. Or drop her off in a cave that I knew for certain was infested with tonberries.

I definitely had options. I went to sleep smiling, dreaming of Mitsuko Somo pleading for her sorry life as the remnants Wutai burned hot and bright around us…

And woke to the awful sounds of Reno singing at the top of his tar-encrusted lungs.

"Oh gawd, sweet Leviathan, deliver me!" I shrieked, covering my ears. There are some mornings I never want to repeat, ever again for as long as I live. I think that may be one of them.

"Problems, Princess?" He called sweetly as he emerged from the bedroom, tugging a shirt over his head. At least I was spared from seeing him shirtless. I think my eyes would've started bleeding and I probably would've curled up and died and then how would Wutai ever get fixed and rebuilt to its former glory?

"Remind me again why I asked you to help me?" I grumbled as I sat up, futilely trying to rub the sleepiness from my eyes.

"Because, Yuffs," and his voice was suddenly low and serious and I remembered why he's considered one of the deadliest men alive, "Right now, you don't need a friend. You need a Turk. And the only Turk crazy enough to partner up with you… is me."

Looking back at that moment, I think we understood each other perfectly. We weren't enemies anymore, hell, we may even have been friends, who knows? But the thing about Reno, is that he knows when to put aside that friendship and just be a Turk, a machine with a purpose, usually to kill.

I like to think, for all my hyperactivity and quirks, that I'm the same way. I am Yuffie Kisaragi, ninja-princess, and I know what it is to be dedicated to a mission. The ninja life is typically a solitary one. AVALANCHE, as much as I love them and finally found my place with them, was kind of a fluke.

As much as it pains me to admit it, especially seeing how the Turks helped to destroy my home the first time around, there isn't much of a difference between a ninja and a Turk. Ninjas typically don't have comrades watching their backs, Turks do. Other than that, we could be interchangeable.

For all his obnoxiousness and swagger, there's no one more serious about a job then Reno.

Except maybe me, but only 'cause I'd never let him beat me at anything.

.xxx.

We split up once we reached the slums, Reno taking the eastern half, leaving the western half for me. The sun was high in the sky, gleaming orange and gold off the metal debris that jutted out all around me and sending inky black spots to the backs of my lids every time I blinked.

I had never been to Midgar before we parachuted in right before facing Proud Clod and Hojo, and I was too busy fighting at the time to really get a good look at it. I returned a second time with Vincent when the rest were down the crater, but I was busy then, too, trying to find and help survivors. I kind of wish I had gotten a chance to see more of Midgar, before it was turned into glistening scrap metal. Aeris and Tifa always told me stories about the different sectors and Wall Market and the cold, mechanized insides of the Shin-Ra HQ.

I guess maybe Midgar was just pretty similar to Edge, but I'll never know for sure. And that bothers me. I like knowing things, and I love seeing the world, and my curiosity has always been hard to reign in. It irks me that the only Midgar I'll ever really know is the one that's all busted and broken, good only for looking pretty in the sunlight.

These thoughts whirled around me as I kicked my way through twisted, deformed metal and dirt and ruin, looking for anyone who would talk to me.

It was there, amongst the rubble and grime, that he found me.

"…Yuffie."

Vincent.

_Don't turn around, don't turn around, don't turn around, you'll give yourself away!_

But again, I was so struck by that need for familiarity, the need for friendship, that I turned despite my inner screaming not to.

I looked into his eyes and saw hurt and betrayal. Guilt cut through me like a shuriken through flesh and I felt a tremble ripple over my skin.

He took one step in my direction…

And then I was off and running.

.xxx.

AN: This chapter is a little lighter than the previous two, but that probably won't last long. And there will be much more Vincent in the next chapter too. This is a Yuffentine a heart, not a Reffie, so no worries there. Leave me a review and let me know what you thought of everything, since reviews are always very much appreciated. Thanks go out to my reviewers from last time: **CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, serenbach, Kurogane7, What A Lovely Disaster, SheDevil85, JingYee, Alpine-Dragon-Queen, Omega Warrior 42, and Ninja-Yuffie92! **You guys rock socks, and I promise now that finals are over and I'm on break the next chapter will be up faster!

As always, any typos are my fault because I don't have a beta, am bad at proofreading and write at two in the morning.

Also, cookies and plushies for anyone who gets the few little references I've snuck in this chapter!

~Bru


	4. Chapter 3

AN: Some of you are going to hate me for this chapter. Others are going to question my sanity. And there will probably be a tiny minority of you, who will thank me. Ah well, I've always loved controversy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything yet, but I'm thinking maybe Square will give Reno to me for Christmas!

.xxx.

I saved Vincent's life once, you know. I mean, obviously there was that time when we were helping Reeve out in Midgar while Cloud and Co. took down Sephiroth (and _gawd_, how I hated missing that showdown!), when Vinnie was all up on top of the falling tower of death where we took down Hojo, but he probably could have figured out a way down even if I hadn't come zipping by on that handy hoverbike.

There was another time though, back before that.

It was one of the many times that we were up in the Northern Crater. Cloud had kept making us leave and come back and leave and come back, on and on and on, until we were all stronger and more "ready". At the time, I remember thinking it was way dumb—all we really wanted to do was go kick some one-winged-angel-butt, and that was strong and ready enough for me.

Anyway, Vincent and I were off on our own, as usual, and we came across a Master Tonberry. Normally, they aren't exactly the toughest things to fight—sure, they've got that dumb Everyone's Grudge move, but if you aren't strong enough to take that, they're also slow enough that you can typically just run away. This tonberry, however, was a little… different from all the others I've ever fought.

That's the thing about the Northern Crater; you _really _don't want to have to spend a ton of time there. It's all made up of ookey green light, and thick, muggy mist and you can literally _feel_ your organs and brain cells absorbing all sorts of nastiness the longer you trudge your sorry self along down there. The monsters there are usually so used to it that I don't think it affects them that much anymore, but occasionally you'll come across one that's been _way _screwed up by all the grossness. Like, screwier than Cait Sith screwy.

I think that must've been what was up with that tonberry, because it was not only faster than your average cloaked-turtle-thing, but it's version of Everyone's Grudge was souped up and very, _very_ powerful. This probably wouldn't have been too much of a problem, seeing as I'm the fastest of the fast and Vinnie's not exactly a slow-poke either, except for one thing. As soon as he caught sight of the tonberry in all its speedy-creepiness, he Chaos-ed out _majorly_. I don't know if he had come down with a particularly bad case of Berserk, or what, but I couldn't get through to him and he wouldn't stop attacking the damn thing. And the tonberry wouldn't stop countering with its crazy Everyone's Grudge of total obliteration.

I don't know if you've ever tried to get between a great, winged demon and its prey… Or between a crazed, mutated tonberry and _its _prey, but I can tell you from experience, neither one of those things is what you'd call fun and easy. And while Chaos-Vinnie was doing a decent job wearing down said crazed, mutated tonberry, the tonberry was doing a much better job wearing down Vinnie.

Here's the thing about Limit Breaks: you normally can't reach one unless you've been taking a lot of damage, or a lot of hypers. I don't know if it was the fact that Vincent, _Vinnie Valentine_, was getting the crap kicked out of him by a stupid turtle thing—when he was in Chaos form, no less—or if it was maybe just a huge rush of adrenaline from being tired and scared and totally-freaking-clueless of how to get Vincent to stop, but all of a sudden I felt the familiar tingles of All Creation rippling down my arms. Not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, I just freaking went with it. And when that familiar, kick-ass beam of total power and ninja-awesomeness went flying out from my hands and Conformer and my very _heart_, it not only kicked the shit out of that scary-ass tonberry, but it completely shattered the cave wall behind it.

Vinnie then proceeded to shift back into his normal, handsome self and collapse like a pile of chocobo dung, leaving me to drag his leather-clad butt somewhere safe from mutant tonberries.

Hmm…Maybe that's where my complex comes from…

Anyway, the point of that little story is that I totally saved his angsting behind from certain death by grudge. Not a pleasant way to go either, I would imagine.

I don't know why, but that memory just kind of popped into my head as I was running away from him through the ruins of Midgar. Not specifically the saving half of it, although that was pretty awesome on my part, seeing as I'd never had an All Creation be that powerful before, but it was the part that came after, when Vincent woke up.

He was pretty bloody and gross, all scratched and maimed and leaking all over. We had a mastered Cure, but I didn't want to take the chance that his injuries would get infected, especially with all the total-grossness-Northern-Crater-atmosphere swirling around us. So I took the liberty of getting rid of his stupid red cloak and bandana, pulled out some clean cloth and a Hi-Potion, and set to work on all the scrapes and gashes I could see. It didn't happen too frequently that one of us passed out for more than a few minutes, but seeing as we were always paired together, we had gotten used to taking care of each other's battle wounds.

Anyway, this particular time, Vinnie was out like a light for a least a half hour. I had dragged us up to a ledge overlooking some weird watery crap that looked like liquidy puke and kinda made me _want_ to puke the longer I stared at it, so once I had Cured Vincent, there wasn't really anything nice to look at… except for him.

He really does have an amazing face, even with those red eyes of his shut tight. He's got fabulous cheekbones and an elegant nose (who else can say that? I mean, really) and lips that can seduce you just by sitting there. And don't even get me started on his eyelashes, especially when they're all dark and feathery against his skin. Honestly, I may have just been a scrawny kid back then, but I could definitely still appreciate the attractiveness that is Vincent Valentine. After all, I'm female and I have eyes.

It was more than that though. I mean, I had been traveling with Vincent for months by that point, but he always had that stupid collar in the way. It was just another one of his walls—trust me, he's got a lot—and by having it out of the way, by being able to see his entire face in all its beauty and vulnerability, I think I finally got a real glimpse of the Vincent behind all the walls.

While I was in the middle of studying his face like I was gonna be tested on it, Vinnie came to. For a few moments we just looked at each other, and then he reached up and gently cupped my cheek.

"Thank you," he whispered, and then he was out again.

It was the first time he'd ever really thanked me for something. I mean, there's always those little, insincere thank you's like when you pass the salt at dinner or whatever, but this one was heartfelt. He _meant_ it. And… for some reason it made me think twice about gloating that _I _had saved the great Vincent Valentine.

From then on, I think we were always a little closer. Nothing romantic or anything, still just friends but… _good_ friends. Trusted friends.

…Which is probably why me running away hurt him. At least I didn't steal his materia this time.

I don't know why, but it was like my mind was stuck on that image of Vincent thanking me, eyes all tired and open and vulnerable. I mean, it had been years since that day, so fixating on it seemed kinda dumb, but I still couldn't get it out of my head.

Guilt is one of those icky emotions that I really _hate_ feeling, and makes me try really hard to not feel whenever possible. Unfortunately, the whole me-and-Vinnie-being-good-friends thing, plus the me-hurting-Vinnie-by-attacking-him-and-running-away-to-Reno thing… equals one big hefty helping of Guilty Yuffie.

It was all I could think about as I careened over rusted steel, razor sharp and ready to turn me into a ninja-kebob. . I couldn't hear Vinnie behind me, but I wasn't making much noise either. It's frustrating, especially for a ninja, when you meet someone who's equally as sneaky as you are. Still, I'm much smaller than Vincent, which means I can duck in places he can't even dream of fitting into. A man-sized coffin for sixty years is one thing, a tunnel between two pieces of busted metal roughly the same height and width of a beach ball, is another. Especially when he's not as bendy as I am. Trust me when I tell you, I can fold myself up like an accordion if the situation calls for it.

Of course, this being the Midgar ruins, full of all things pokey and sharp, I sliced open my calf as I was scrunching myself through the jagged opening. I could feel the blood leaking down into my sneaker, all warm and sticky and oozing, but I just kept worming my way through the debris.

I stopped about halfway down the tunnel, holding my breath to listen. I couldn't hear anything other than my heart bumping around in my throat like a jackhammer, no sounds of shifting metal under ugly, pointed boots. No rustlings of a cloak flapping in a nonexistent wind. Just pure quiet.

So I just continued slinking my ninja butt along towards the end of my makeshift tunnel, finally emerging into the bright sunlight all covered in dirt and dust and grime and grossness. It hadn't taken me long to make my way from one end to the other, but the view when I stood up, brushing myself off, was completely different from the one I had left on the other side.

When I had left Vincent, it had been on a cramped pathway carved between one pile of twisted scrap metal and another. The other side opened up ten feet from a ledge overlooking the plains between Midgar and the blue, endless ocean. With the wind ruffling my hair and the sun shining bright and cheerful in the sky, it was almost possible to forget all the suckiness that had happened over the past few days. I could almost trick myself into thinking that I wasn't a deposed ninja princess, running from her friends and a psycho-skank enemy, that I was just a normal, everyday girl enjoying a pretty view.

And then reality, like the bitch it is, came rushing back with a vengeance, and I sighed that world-weary sigh I was getting _so _sick of hearing. Getting ready to start running again, I turned from the view and all its glory, only to run face-first into a sturdy, leather-clad chest.

Vinnie.

I don't know how long I expected it to take him to find me once I'd skedaddled away, and I definitely wasn't expecting him to sneak up on me. I mean, I know that outsmarting Vincent is pretty much impossible, but _still_. I'm a ninja! I should be at least a little better than him at all the sneaky stuff.

He just looked at me with unreadable eyes as I stepped back and glanced around frantically for a new escape route. Behind me there was the cliff's drop-off, and only two narrow paths ran to either side of me. With Vincent standing directly in front of me, I was pretty much…what's the word? Oh yeah, screwed.

"Yuffie." It was just two, quiet syllables, yet they somehow made me feel about two inches tall.

You can tell a lot by how Vincent says your name. By the time we were all done with Sephiroth and Meteor, I had finally gotten to the point with him where he didn't say mine in that perpetually annoyed, why-the-hell-are-you-so-immature kind of way. Now he was back to his monotone, I-sound-like-I-don't-care-but-I'm-really-kinda-pissed way of saying it. I flinched a little 'cause, to be quite honest, Vincent can be pretty scary when he's mad.

First I went for the oblivious babbling approach. "Hey, Vinnie! Surprise running into you here! Ya know, I'd heard so much about the beauty and majesty of these ruins that I just had to come see them in person and I just have to tell you, I really am blown away, and have you _seen_ how fabulous this view is?"

But his steady gaze didn't move from my twitchy form, not even to look at the view which really _was_ phenomenal. So I decided to take the shamed-into-submission approach, hopefully to get his guard down so I could take off and save him from his own helpfulness. I really didn't want anything bad to happen to Vincent, or any of my friends, and that's all they were asking for by getting mixed up with me and my political issues.

"So, uh… I guess you probably wanna know why I took off on you…" I mumbled, hanging my head and scuffing a sneaker into the dirt, the absolute picture of shame and regret. I hadn't exactly been super explanatory in the note I left for him, after all.

"…" was all the response I got. And that does count as a response, believe me. There's a difference between a silence and an ellipse. You spend enough time with Broody McValentine, you learn how to tell these things.

I opened my mouth to start babbling the first explanation I could think of, but he cut me off. Vincent freaking Valentine cut me off! I was so proud.

"I don't want to hear it, Yuffie. I came to help you. I swore to Tifa that I'd bring you back safely. You've obviously made it to Edge in one piece, but whatever is going on, you can't handle this alone." Four whole sentences without pausing. Even with his anger directed at me, my pride just continued to increase for my little Broodster.

But still, I had to make sure he stayed out of my mess. "I won't be alone, Vince… I've got help. I just don't wanna bring all this crazy stuff down on you guys, especially after what I found out yesterday. If something happened to you, or anyone else waiting back at Teef's, I don't think I'd ever stop blaming myself."

"And you don't think I… you don't think we all would feel the same if we didn't help you?"

I wasn't so busy feeling guilty that I missed Vincent's little trip-up on his words. However, I _was_ too busy glaring at him and readying my argument to really think about what it meant.

"It's not your fight!" I shouted, fixing him with the best glare in my rather extensive arsenal of glares. "You guys all did the good deeds, saved the world twice… but this is just Wutai, Vinnie… not Edge, not Shin-Ra, not anything you guys need to get tangled up in."

We glared at each other for a few seconds, although I don't think either of us was really angry anymore. More like… trying to get the other to change their opinion by way of penetrating stare. Thank gawd I'm as stubborn as I am, because Vinnie's stare is pretty persuasive, I will admit.

"'Scuse me, Miss… Is this man bothering you?" With all the horrible timing in the world, Reno sidled up next to me, drawling like a moron.

"Oh my gawd, Reno, could you be any more obnoxious?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Probably, Princess," he smirked down at me before glancing at Vinnie again. "'Sup Valentine, how's life treating you?"

Vincent's eyes flickered between the two of us, and for some reason I felt my face doing that awful, embarrassing flushing thing it does whenever I start feeling particularly uncomfortable.

"So this is your help? You'd rather get help from an old enemy than from your friends."

"I don't need a friend, Vincent! Right now, I need a Turk." Reno's words from earlier that morning just kinda came flying out of my mouth, a little like word vomit. "Look, Reno _gets_ all this stuff, assassinations and corrupt political schemes and reconnaissance and all that! AVALANCHE is my family, and I love you guys but… this isn't like Sephiroth or Meteor or anything like that. It's icky, messy, bloody _politics_. I need a Turk right now, otherwise I'm just flying blind."

I was flushed and panting and probably looked ridiculous, but something in my little rant sobered Vinnie up from his anger and whatever betrayal he was probably feeling.

"A Turk… I see." And then, just like that, he was gone.

Without hesitating, I promptly turned and smacked Reno upside the head.

"_Hey!_ What was that for, ya dumb brat?"

"You big, dumb idiot! Could you possibly have any worse timing? And now Vincent's all offended and… and…. This is all your fault!"

Rubbing the back of his head irritably, he fixed me with a pointed scowl. "I wouldn't be calling the guy who just found the location of Crazy Bitch's hideout an idiot, yo."

Any anger towards the red-headed Turkey was immediately thrown away to be replaced by disbelief, excitement, and a little bit of fear. "You found it? You really, seriously found it?"

His reply was nonchalant. "Well, I had to beat it out of a couple slummers, but yeah, Princess. Info's all yours if you want it."

That put a hitch in my step. "…You didn't seriously beat anyone up, did you?" After all, the Turks were the good guys too now… supposedly.

He sent me another one of those sideways, avoid-y glances. "Wouldn't you like to know, kid."

Without another word, he turned and started heading back the way he came, leaving me scrambling behind him.

.xxx.

My leg was in pretty bad shape by the time we got back to Reno's apartment. I guess I had sliced it up worse than I originally thought, 'cause I was definitely limping for the last half of the walk back, and collapsing on Reno's couch when we finally got there was kind of like Heaven. A good Cure2 on top of some antiseptic left the skin all knitted closed and scarred on the outside, but I could still feel the muscle underneath getting all twingy and painful whenever I tried to flex or move it in any way. Reno tossed some ace bandages at me (like they were really gonna help much) and waited 'til I was done wrapping it up (well, I wasn't gonna turn down any extra support, if that's what you're thinking) before flopping down next to me and launching into the info he'd managed to obtain.

"Apparently Mitsuko's new funding has her set up in one of the nicer parts of town, some swanky mansion type-deal. Kinda like Don Corneo, only without the kinky sex addiction. It's way on the outskirts of the city, and there'll either be no security at all, 'cause she feels like nothing can threaten her, or it'll be tighter than a virgin's p—"

"Lalalalala! Okay, I think I get the picture, you big sicko! Either way, security's not exactly difficult for me to get around… no matter how… ugh, tight it is." Taking a second to shake that lovely image from my head, a thought occurred to me. "Wait a sec, if she's got a Kill on Sight on her… then how the hell is she all holed up in such a fancy place?"

He stretched back on the couch, all sinewy and cat-like. "My guess? She hasn't been there long enough for the Gov. to take notice of her. Or she's managed to make her disguise airtight. And while you may be the shit at getting around any kind of security system, we're still gonna have to come up with a plan for once you've gotten in. I mean, at the end of the day this bitch may not even be the mastermind at all, she may just be the muscle. We need to find out who's funding her, and why."

"Okay… So we break in, find this bitch-ho and beat it out of her."

"Normally a plan I'd be all for… but if you were her, Yuff, how much would it take for her to beat anything out of you?"

"I'd take anything important… to the grave." So he had a point.

"Exactly. If you think she'll be an easy nut to crack, then you're even dumber than you look."

I threw the roll of ace bandages at his smirking face, reveling in the satisfying _thwack_ it made on impact.

I couldn't focus on planning anything just right then. My brain was one big pile of distracted mush and grossness, worrying about Vincent and where he might have scampered his emo self off to. Sure, he was quiet and antisocial a lot of the time, but it wasn't like him to just up and leave in the middle of a conversation… or confrontation, since I guess that's closer to what had been going on. In all honesty, _I'm_ the one who always runs away from conflict while Vinnie just sits (or stands) there like a rock or a tree or a wall, all solid and unmoving and just stays until things are fixed.

I've run away from conflict plenty of times. I'd never seen Vincent do it until that day. So, yeah, I was worried about the big angst muffin.

I think Reno must've sensed that I was distracted or agitated or constipated or whatever, because he ducked outside to have a smoke while I curled up and tried to nap my worry away. I don't know how long exactly I was out for, but it was dark when I opened my eyes again. The door to Reno's bedroom was shut, and I immediately sent a prayer up to Leviathan that he hadn't called over a stripper or one of his many, fake-chested conquests to bang, and that if he had I would at least be spared from the sound effects of said banging.

Speaking of banging, there was someone at Reno's apartment door, knocking away. The knocks were sharp and precise and I got those obnoxious nervous butterflies flapping around in my belly. Still, after a few moments of Reno _not_ answering the door, or even making any move to answer it, I decided to go get it myself. Not before grabbing Conformer, though, just in case.

As soon as the door swung open, I was in a state of complete, immobilizing shock.

If it hadn't been for the red eyes, I'm not sure I would've recognized Vincent. His hair was cropped short, with his bangs still hanging around his face and he was wearing a blue suit. A very familiar blue suit. A blue suit that pretty much screamed _"Turk!"_ loud and clear.

I think I may have swallowed a few bugs before I was able to pick my jaw up off the floor. And Conformer which had clattered away from my shock-limp fingers.

"Vincent…?" My eyes were frantically roving his face looking for any sign that he wasn't real, or was an imposter or something. But when the corner of his mouth twitched up ever so slightly in his tiny, trademark, Vinnie smile, I knew it was really him.

"Do I meet your requirements now?" He asked with just a hint or wry irony hovering below the surface.

I could only nod dumbly.

I don't know if you get the magnitude of what it meant for him to do that for me, but let me make it very clear: if you take the biggest thing someone's ever done for you, and multiply it by a bazillion, you still won't even be close.

Vincent _hates_ the Turks and everything they remind him of. I pestered him about it until he nearly used me for target practice one night back during Meteor, but he finally told me the whole sorry story. He absolutely loathes that part of his past, and yet… he dragged it back up again. For… for…

Somewhere deep in my core, I realized that he was asking me to trust him, to be vulnerable with him and to let him into my fight. He was being vulnerable with me, letting down a crap-ton of his walls and hoping I'd do the same.

I couldn't keep him out anymore, not after a sacrifice that huge. Also, every inch of his beautiful face was visible, and I think he might've thralled me into agreeing or something. He is pretty much a vampire, after all.

"D'you… D'you wanna come in? I can give you the run-down of everything or…" But he shook his head.

"I think I'd prefer to take a walk, if you don't mind." When he said it so politely, how could I refuse?

So I scribbled a quick note to Reno, and we headed off into the night.

I couldn't stop staring at him, whether his profile was illuminated by the streetlamps or shadowed by their absence, it didn't matter. My eyes were incapable of leaving his face.

"I feel like an art exhibit or a circus attraction," he noted, again with that hint of wryness laced into his tone.

"_Gawd_, Vinnie I just… it's so… I mean… _why?_" Eloquence, thy name is Yuffie.

"You'd do better with a friend on your side. A friend who isn't _Reno_. He's a skilled Turk, but you and he are too much alike in your… decision-making skills. You'll need my help, whether it's as a friend or as a Turk." He paused, thoughtful. "And I've always been told that this particular shade of blue brings out my eyes."

I choked on my own tongue. "_Vince?_ You just made a joke… about your Turk days… Are you coming down with something?"

He shook his head with a tiny chuckle. I'd always wondering what his mouth looked like when he did that… just one more Vinnie Mystery solved.

It was a beautiful sight, just by the by.

"There are so many ugly memories I have tied to my Turk days. Perhaps this will help me to move on from them."

I think that day was like National Surprise the Hell out of Yuffie Day. If it wasn't, than Vincent was sure trying to make it so.

We had been walking aimlessly along the inner-city streets, but I stopped up short. He paused a step of me, glancing over his should with questions written all over his face.

I remember trembling slightly as I reached out to touch his arm, right at the elbow. I think maybe I was delirious or confused or high or drunk or something, because all of a sudden I was stretching up to press a kiss to Vincent's pale cheek.

"Thank you," I whispered.

A tiny smile served just fine as a "you're welcome."

Then I realized something else. I had touched Vincent's _left_ elbow, and the only thing I had felt… was normal, human, bony elbow. No awkward brass hinge, no nothing. A wide-eyed glance confirmed it; Vincent had ditched the gauntlet too.

Unthinkingly, I reached for his human hand, before realizing how much of a rabid fangirl I was making myself seem like and pulling away from him. The moment might've been totally awkward had it not been interrupted by the woman who harshly shoved her way by me. As I turned to offer an insincere "oh, so sorry," I caught sight of her face fully.

Her eyes were cold and hard, like granite, and I had seen them not a few hours ago, staring back at me from the manila folder.

Hauling Vincent around the nearest corner, I hurriedly tried to babble my way through an explanation of just who and what she was.

"Vinnie, we have to go after her! She could be meeting with her big funding, pimp-daddy or whatever, we need to figure out where she's going!" My gut was screaming at me to follow her, that it was necessary and urgent and all sorts of associated importance.

Vinnie, however, slid immediately into calm, cool, collected, Turk mode. "Yuffie, we have no plan or preparation. If she's as deadly as you're trying to make me think, it wouldn't be wise to just head in recklessly."

But Kisaragi stubbornness does not go away, _ever_, no matter how open and beautiful Vincent makes himself look. "Vince, I have a gut feeling about this, and if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's to trust my gut. I've got Conformer, you've got Cerberus, and between the two of us we've got a boatload of stealth and sneakiness. So let's _go_ before she gets away!" I turned to leave, without chancing a glance back. I trusted him to follow me. And he did.

…Into unseen peril.

.xxx.

AN: Um… please don't kill me for cutting off Vinnie's hair! I gave you some not-quite-romantic-yet-fluff, didn't I? Doesn't that make up for it? If you kill me you'll never know how it ends! And just by the by, Turk Vincent is equally as sexy as Non-Turk Vincent, IMO. Anyway, drop me a review to yell at me or tell me how much you liked it or that I should never write again or whatever. Reviews make me happy, and a happy author who has no finals anymore writes much faster than an unhappy one! Thanks go out to all my lovely reviewers from the last chapter: **What A Lovely Disaster, Kurogane7, Ninja-Yuffie92, realestboo, CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, LittleMissMuddle, JingYee, and Serenbach!** I hope this chapter was a good read, and seeing as the fic has replaced Finding Eden as my baby, there will probably be another chapter headed your way soon!

As always, any typos are totally my fault because I don't have a beta, am god-awful at proofreading and write these chapters when I'm super tired and have the Pokémon theme song stuck in my head.

~Bru


	5. Chapter 4

AN: Get ready…

Disclaimer: In the nine days since the last chapter, I still haven't managed to acquire the rights to FFVII. So everything you recognize belongs to Square.

.xxx.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm rather hyper, kinda immature, and quite often twitchy. However, when the situation calls for it, I know how to get my ninja-butt in gear and take a professional attitude about things. And seeing as the bitch who torched my Wutai without so much as a second thought was currently sauntering away from me (looking like a total slut, I might add), it was time for the mature, focused, Great Ninja Yuffie to come out to play. Paired up with Vincent, who was doing the whole detached, collected Turk thing, we made quite the pair striding down the sidewalk.

Even without his cloak flouncing behind him all dramatic and swooshing and emo, Vincent still walked with an obvious, and kinda threatening, grace. All the times I'd compared him to a rock came rushing back and I realized my mistake. The guy moves like water, all long, fluid strides and whatnot. And just between you and me, if the situation hadn't been so serious, I totally would've checked out his butt the entire time we were walking along—with no cloak in the way, I'm sure the view would've been glorious.

As it was, there was no time for butt-admiring while we followed after Mitsuko. We were walking with purpose, but still not fast enough that she would realize she was being followed. We could've just been a pair of people who were slightly late for a reservation, or something equally as innocent and lame. Still, a trained eye would have seen the lethal power in Vinnie immediately, whether it was in the smooth, strong way he moved or the majorly kickass gun clutched in his right hand. Plus, the blue suit still holds a lot of meaning for people who were tuned in during the Shin-Ra years. Me? Well, it's a little harder to tell that I'm just as tough and deadly… and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's better than a lot of disguises, ya see, 'cause no one expects a tiny chiquita like me to be much of a threat, especially with my stick arms and never-ending legs and spastic grin. If it wasn't for Conformer strapped to my back, you wouldn't guess that I'm dangerous, and you sure as hell wouldn't guess that I'm a princess… even though I'm both.

Anyway, as we followed Mitsuko through the crowds, it became clearer than Vinnie's flawless skin that she was _not_ heading toward the swanky neighborhood where she lived. In fact, she was heading into the exact opposite part of Edge, the part where all the druggies and gangs and hookers hang out.

…Maybe prostitution was her day job? Except it was night anyway, and do hookers even work during the day?

Still, neither me nor Vinnie were daunted by the prospects of heading into the "bad" part of Edge. We could both hold our own, and, as part of my new, non-Yuffie outfit, I was wearing jeans instead of tiny, unbuttoned shorts, so I wouldn't get mistaken for a hooker. Although, come to think of it, from a reconnaissance standpoint, it probably wouldn't have been such a bad thing to blend in, even if it was as a prostitute.

The buildings around us slowly shifted from clean and all new-looking to run-down and busted up and graffiti-ed upon. Even the bricks under our feet were jagged and uneven and raw. The people we passed got sketchier and sketchier, too. Grungy dudes smoking joints and strung-out chicks swapping cash for little power-filled baggies began replacing the businessmen and women we had passed before. Smoke spiraled up into the night sky, making everything shimmer hazy and smell all sickly sweet. I wasn't dressed nice enough that I stuck out too badly, and even though Vincent was looking all spiffy and put-together, like I said before, the blue suit still holds meaning.

For most people, at least… But there's always one dumbass who thinks he's tough shit.

"Hey," some tatted-up meathead tried to get in our way, but we just skirted around him, intent on following Crazy-Chick.

"Hey!" This time the idiot was not only louder, but he went as far as to grab Vincent's arm with greasy hands and dirty fingernails… major ew. "You're a Turk."

Not wanting to waste any time and lose sight of Mitsuko, I decided to take things into my own hands instead of waiting for Vincent to get his ellipses sorted. "Oh my _gawd_, you're so smart! How did you know? Actually, never mind, we can't hang around to chat. See he has places to be and Turk-like things to do, so while it was _super_ nice meeting you, Brainiac, leave us the hell alone."

The guy just stood there blinking at us like a moron, before letting go of Vincent's arm. Unfortunately, he then curled his hand into a fist, pulled back and let a punch fly towards Vinnie's face. Vincent dodged the attack neatly and in one swift movement had the barrel of Cerberus pressed against the other dude's forehead.

"Get out of here."

The guy didn't back down though, he just glared at Vincent as though daring him to pull the trigger.

"Your people killed my kid."

A flicker of something swept across Vincent's face, but other than that he didn't move a muscle.

"Leave." The word was cold, sharp and emotionless, and I guess the guy got the hint 'cause he certainly scampered away pretty quick. Vincent's arm dropped and he looked very, very tired all of a sudden.

Throughout the short exchange, I had been rooted to the spot watching with a kind of sick fascination. Kinda like when I watched that movie about the guy trying to make a human centipede? Only this wasn't funny.

We had kinda acquired an audience of druggies and other sketchies by that point, but I was mainly focused on Vincent, and chanced a quiet question. "Vinnie? You okay?"

He didn't answer, instead choosing to turn and continue on the way we'd been headed. I caught up easily, ninja speed and long legs and all. Thankfully, there weren't any turnoffs from the alley or doors for a while, so there was still a chance that we hadn't totally lost track of Mitsuko. Still, I was more worried about the gunslinger beside me at that moment than I was about revenge.

Funny how life gets ya like that sometimes.

"…Vince?"

"I am fine, Yuffie. I told you… this suit carries many ugly memories with it. My past isn't a happy place, and I mean even before Hojo and Lucrecia."

While he really didn't outwardly seem like he was upset about what happened, I could see the little crease between his eyebrows that practically screamed "Vinnie is upset!"

So I figured a rant was in order. "Well, that still gives him no right to try and punch you! You didn't kill his kid, especially seeing how you were all locked away in a coffin for pretty much forever, and then once you got out of it you helped save the world! Twice! Actually, he should really be thanking you, ya know? So… if you're gonna go all Angsty McMuffin on me, please stop before _I_ try to punch you, too. And just by the by, I won't miss."

I have no idea if I actually managed to cheer him up or if he was just pretending for my benefit, but the corner of Vincent's mouth twitched up at the end of my rant. Just then, a thought struck me.

"But… just out of curiosity… you weren't really gonna shoot him in the head… right?"

"Not in the head, no… maybe just the leg."

"Have I ever told you your jokes are total lamesauce?" I scoffed, crossing my arms and trying to keep the mood light. Just as with Reno talking about beating info out of slummers, I wasn't sure if Vincent was really joking or not. It must be a Turk thing, I guess.

He just shook his head though, that small smile back in place. "Many, many times. However, my jokes aside… I think we have a move pressing problem."

We had reached a fork in our alley. It split off to both sides and continued heading straight as well. I sighed.

"I guess we're splitting up then? Gawd, where's Reno when you need him… probably banging some chick of total grossness. Having a third person would _so_ be nice right about now."

"I will take the left path, you go right. Fifteen minutes and then we meet back here. If one of us finds something, we'll investigate further together. If we find nothing, we'll take the center path together and hope we get lucky."

"Sounds like a plan, Vinnie-O! See ya in fifteen!" I waved lightly and was about to sashay off to the right when his voice stopped me.

"Yuffie…" He paused for so long that I wasn't sure he was ever gonna continue. My head was cocked over my shoulder and we looked at each other for a few long moments. Finally, he drew in a breath. "Just… be careful. Wutai needs to you to make it out of this alive. To rebuild… to rule."

I quickly flashed the patented Kisaragi grin, quipping, "Aww Vince! I didn't know you cared!" And then I was off and running before I could decipher the look in his eyes.

.xxx.

I seem to spend a lot of time running away from Vincent. I don't really know why that is… I mean, first it was 'cause I kept stealing from him and Cloud and everyone before they finally kicked my butt, and then it was 'cause I stole their materia… but once I stopped stealing I think… I think maybe it just had a lot to do with nerves.

See, first I was all nervous about getting him involved. Not wanting him to get hurt, or for me to get hurt and him to then angst about it for twelve-thousand years, et cetera, et cetera. And then, as I ran away from him down that dank alley, I think I was just nervous because… we were finally there. In the middle of beginning to solve my problem and… I didn't want to really think about anything going wrong.

I knew it was silly, seeing as Vincent's ex-Turk or re-Turk or whatever, which basically means he's strong and awesome and can take care of himself, but still. The gut feeling that had told me following Mitsuko was a good idea? Well, it was now all nervous and icky and telling me that maybe splitting up had been a bad idea. I mean, didn't Turks stick together and watch each other's backs and stuff? Shouldn't Vinnie have told me splitting up was a reckless idea and blah, blah, blah? What if, after being all vampirey and sleeping in a coffin for sixty years he was all old and rusty on being a Turk and didn't remember all the important stuff?

As I sped down the alleyway, I shook those thoughts off. Worrying would only make me slip up and get myself killed. I'd never worried about him before, because I'd never had a reason to. He was skilled and dangerous and knew how to keep himself safe, so I had no reason to worry. None at all.

But still…. my gut was seriously disagreeing with me.

Getting back to the matter at hand, I began to focus on my surroundings. At each open doorway I passed, I made sure to stealthily peer inside. Mainly they were filled with sleeping homeless people, or junkies shooting up, but I also got the occasional glimpse of a hooker selling her…um… wares.

Still, I was trying to move pretty fast to make up for the time lost dealing with the tattooed idiot and then me and Vinnie's big, epic stare-fest. Once I had gotten my worries firmly shoved into the little lockbox in my head where unpleasant things go, I definitely picked up some speed, thanking Leviathan for my ungodly long legs and the ability to make no noise when I scamper about. Or when I have to skid to a quick and totally unplanned stop, which is what happened about eight minutes into my solo adventure.

Up ahead about thirty paces I front of me, illuminated by the one lit doorway in the entire alley, stood Mitsuko.

I pressed myself against the brick wall to my right, willing myself to either blend in or at least look like I belonged in the Sketchtastic Alley of Total Grossness, and watched to see what Queen Psycho was up to.

Whatever was going on, she looked angry, all arms crossed and hip jutting to the side and foot tapping. I guess whoever wasn't letting her inside changed their mind or something, because a moment later her arms dropped and she smiled before heading in.

Her smile made bile rise up my throat. If I hadn't known before, I definitely knew then.

"This bitch is insane."

Still, once she was safely inside, I stole down the alley to see if I might get a glimpse of what she was up to. The door was wooden and all shabby and broken, like everything else in the bad part of Edge. Positioning myself so I didn't cast a shadow at its edges and give myself away, I managed to peer in through a decent crack in the wood.

There was a slight drop from the door's edge down to the floor of the inside room, and at its center was a bunch of scruffy looking guys sitting around big metal table. From what I could see, the rest of the room was pretty bare… except for a whopping pile of what looked like explosives materials off in the corner. Mitsuko stood before them, preening and posing and obviously annoyed about something.

"I said I wanted C-4, not whatever crap _that_ is! How does he expect me to get anything done around here when all he gives me is shit to work with? And why the _hell_ couldn't we meet up somewhere other than this shit-hole? It's not like he doesn't have the money."

"Boss thinks he's being watched, and since you're so big on the whole privacy thing, he didn't think meeting at the mansion would be a good idea."

She threw herself down into the last empty chair at the table, pouting. "Fine, I guess I can believe that… but what about my C-4? I could've done a much better job turning Wutai into a big, old pile of ashes if he'd given me better stuff to work with. That ugly-as-fuck pagoda is still standing, for Ifrit's sake!"

I felt my hands balling into fists and something cold and sharp was rising in my chest. _That bitch…_

Still, Vinnie's words came to my mind, reminding me that I was pretty much Wutai's last hope. I willed myself to relax, taking deep, silent breaths. Except… those never seem to work in real life though; I was still furious.

When a calm, familiar weight settled on my shoulder, I didn't even jump. I must have missed the fifteen minute mark, but thankfully Vincent hadn't waited and had just come to join the party. He settled in beside me and we continued to watch.

The conversation had steered away from Crazy's explosives obsession, and she was now shouting like a two-year old.

"What do you mean, he's done with me? That's impossible!"

One of the men started stammering. "W-well, you s-see, M-Mitsuko—"

In a flash, she had drawn a knife from somewhere hidden and thrown it across the room with a yell. The stammering man slumped instantly, the blade embedded in his throat. Vincent clamped a hand over tightly my mouth to stop my surprised gasp from giving us away. His skin was warm against my lips, but I was still so focused on the scene through the crack in the door that I barely registered that fact.

"Don't _ever_ call me that!" Her shriek was wild and hysterical, and I could see the rest of the men looking warily between her and their fallen comrade. Only one remained calm, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"Adelene, then. The reason he's letting you go is because he's lost use for you. Yes, you were helpful. The strike on Wutai was an obvious success. We have their leader captive and the heir is dead. So—"

"Have you seen the body?" Mitsuko was calm again, her anger seeming to fade in the beat of a chocobo's heart.

"Huh?"

She began to smile her awful smile again. "Have you seen the girl's body, Hart? Because, if not… then she isn't dead. They breed them strong and slippery in that backwater country. Like roaches. Unless you've seen her body, then she's still alive." She turned to leave the room and Vincent and I shot to our feet. However, she paused for a moment, to turn back and survey the men once more. "And by the way, you can tell your boss… that if he thinks he's done with me, he's got another thing coming."

When she made to leave again, Vincent and I flew down the alley like moogles out of hell, ducking into the first open door we found and trying our best to morph into the shadows. Once Mitsuko passed, sauntering her crazy self along, we waited about half a minute before following again.

"Vince! We need to go after her, _tonight_! Whoever her boss was, he's got my dad! And I can't just leave him wherever they've got him locked up!" Any sanity I had left had gone soaring out the damn window. Sure, Godo was tough, but I could _not_ leave him to be bound or tortured or _killed_, not when I had a connection to finding him.

Even as we strode quickly along, Vincent was looking at me with soft eyes, and I knew he was about to give me a billion reasons why we shouldn't go. It kinda made me want to hit him in his pretty face. "Yuffie… We need time to come up with a plan and—"

"_No._" I came to a dead halt and looked up at him. I didn't glare. I didn't pout. I just looked at him with all the seriousness in the world resting on my shoulders and plastered on my face. I clenched and unclenched my jaw, thinking fast.

An idea struck me… a very cruel, very low blow. Telling my conscience to shove it, I tried to make my tone gentler. "Vincent… if it was your father, your mother… if it was _Lucrecia_, would you really want to wait?"

His face closed off at her name, and I winced slightly. Silence reigned between us. And then I had had enough.

"Fine. Don't come. But I'm still going to go. I'm going to bust into her house, kick the shit out of anyone who tries to get in my way, and beat Godo's location out of her." I shoved past Vincent, fury driving every step.

And then his hand caught my arm, bringing me up short. I wrenched it from his grasp and turned to glare.

"Do you know where this mansion of hers is?"

"Reno's got the exact address. I was going to give him a call on my way over."

"Call him and get it. Tell him that we are going in alone, but that he should be on standby somewhere near enough that he can help if something goes wrong."

I blinked. Waited .2 seconds. And flung myself at Vincent.

"_thankyou_!"

As I squeezed him around the middle as hard as I could, Vincent didn't even tense up. One of his hands came to rest at the back of my head, and I thought I heard a small chuckle. His heart beat steadily in my ear, and it seemed like a promise.

_Everything's gonna be alright._

.xxx.

Reno was not happy when I called him.

"Where the _fuck_ have you been you dumbass kid?"

I rolled my eyes. It's like a reflex whenever I talk to Reno, I just can't help it. "Oh stop pretending like you were worried, you moron. I left you a freaking note, and I've been with Vincent."

"Ahh, so Valentine decided to join the cause, I see. How much did you have to pay him to spend time with your annoying ass?"

"Reno? My ass is perfectly lovely, so shut the hell up, okay? Anyway, I need to tell you what we found out."

I gave him the quick rundown of what we'd overheard, mainly about Godo and the fact that whoever was funding Mitsuko didn't seem to want to anymore. Also that there was someone named Hart working for the main boss-guy, and that apparently the boss had thought I was dead, but probably knew by then that I actually wasn't. If he trusted Mitsuko's word, that is.

"So… what d'ya need me for, yo? Are we running in, guns blazing to save your old man?"

"Weeeelll…." I fiddled with my stupid blonde hair, frowning at a few split ends. "Actually, Vinnie and I are gonna go to the mansion and do the heavy-duty, action-y stuff, but we need you to be somewhere on standby in case shit gets bad. I mean, this chick has a major thing for C-4, so who knows what we're gonna be walking into."

Reno sighed heavily, exaggerating disappointment. "You and Valentine are really gonna leave me out of all the fun? Geez, do you have it bad for each other or what…"

"_What?_" I think I sound vaguely like a parrot when I squawk like that.

"Oh, come on, Princess! He cuts off his hair and faces a past he fucking loathes because you're _friends_? Please, kid… if you believe that, you're even more oblivious than Elena. And now you two are off on some romantic, candlelit, break-in… leaving poor, old Reno all on his lonesome. But, hey! It's all good. I'm too sexy to be a third wheel anyway."

I think I managed to sputter out a strangled, "Don't flatter yourself, Turkey," before the obnoxious redhead finally decided to give it a rest. He gave me the address and cheerfully let me know where he'd be waiting in case something got messed up, before hanging up and leaving me to collect the scattered remains of my brain. How is it that someone so gawd-damned _weird_ can be one of the most dangerous people in the world? I'll never understand…

It was only around midnight as Vincent and I set off for Mitsuko's place, but I felt like I'd been up for five days straight. Running from Vincent, arguing with Reno, Vincent coming back, arguing with Vincent, finding out that Godo was taken, arguing with Vincent some more then arguing with Reno again on top of that… I was exhausted.

I was also trying my hardest to shove Reno's stupid comments about me and Vincent into my mental lockbox. I couldn't afford to be thinking about that until I knew where Godo was and had rescued him. Besides, it was probably nothing more than Reno being an idiot. At least… that's what I kept telling myself.

.xxx.

"Well… I gotta give Crazy credit… she _does_ know how to live in style." Vincent and I were across the street from the humongous mansion she called home, blending with the shadows and attempting to take stock of all the security she had. I could definitely understand why she was annoyed to be doing business in run-down, junkie-infested alleyways.

"I don't see much other than a few cameras and two guards at the front door. That gate shouldn't be a problem for you to vault over…" Vincent trailed off, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Hey, Vince?" I tried not to shiver at the way his eyes were intense as they focused on me. "How would you feel about being bait?" One silky eyebrow quirked at that. "You know, like… you go create shenanigans on camera, draw out the guards and then I slip in? Whatever guards she has inside to keep her safe, I'll be able to handle."

He frowned, considering. "It could work… especially because our chances of making it past all the cameras unnoticed are rather slim."

"Can you handle a crap-ton of guards coming at you? 'Cause I _so_ do not want to be the reason your emo butt gets killed."

"I'll be fine. I've more than likely seen more field time than any guards she might have combined. The real question is… Can you handle being in the same room with the person who destroyed your country?"

My teeth snapped together as I clenched my jaw. "I'll be fine. _She_ might not be when I'm done with her but… I can do it, Vince."

He seemed satisfied. There was another one of those moments where we seemed to get stuck just looking at each other. Reno's gloating voice was echoing around stupidly in my brainstem and I felt my face do its awful blushy thing as I looked away.

"Yuffie, if… if things go badly—"

"They won't, Vince! This'll totally be easy as pie and—"

"But if they do—"

"Would you stop worrying, everything's totally gonna be—"

"Goddamn it, Yuffie!" I was shocked into silence. Vincent raked a hand through his short hair, agitated like I'd never seen him before. "If things go badly," he began again, quieter this time, "don't worry about me. Just make sure you get yourself out. I know this is why you didn't want friends involved but… just get yourself out. You're the important person in this equation."

I wanted to smack him, just then. I didn't actually do it, but I seriously thought about it. Instead I settled for a "fuck you, Vinnie" which seemed to bring an odd, wry smile to his face. And then he was striding across the street and fiddling conspicuously with the mansion's main gate. While he was doing that, I slipped around to the shadowed side of the perimeter, near one side of the tall wall of hedges that surrounded the house and grounds.

Seriously, though? A mansion surrounded by ginormous, stupid hedges? I'm usually a fan of cliché, but that was just too much.

I didn't have to wait too long for the commotion to start. The front door swung open and maybe fifteen or twenty guards poured out, joining the two in front of the house and the ten others scurrying around from the back. When I thought I had a free shot, I carefully flipped myself up over the hedge, landing soft as a kitten on the springy grass below. Gazing across to where the fighting was just about breaking out, my eyes focused just in time to see Vincent put a bullet in the head of one of the guards, a carefully blank look on his face.

It wasn't as if we hadn't killed before.

After watching for a few more moments just to make sure that he wasn't going to need my help which, being all Turk-like and awesome, I could tell he wouldn't, I began running through the night towards the front door as quickly and stealthily as I could. I had been worried about my blonde hair shining like a damn beacon in the dark, so a dark hoodie fixed that and in a matter of minutes I was standing in the foyer of Crazy's mansion.

I suppose I hadn't taken into account the fact that it would be superbly maze-like and huge, but I took a wild guess and started up the stairs.

I had only reached the first landing with the guards found me, but I cut them all down with a quick toss of Conformer. These people were helping the bitch who had destroyed my country; they would receive no mercy from me.

The best way to fight is to be so angry that you're actually calm. It's kind of like meditating, only… opposite. You become so focused on every movement and attack you make, that you forget everything but the fight. Your limbs seem to almost move without you really thinking about where you want them to go, and any injuries you get are painless and unimportant.

That's the state I slipped into as I set about exploring the house. I was trying to be as quick as possible; disposing of whatever guards came across my path. I had no time for mercy or remorse or guilt, just hack and slash and search for Mitsuko.

Finding her didn't actually take that long and when I did, she was sitting on a plush bed, surrounded by dozens of beige bricks and wires. Her hand was outstretched, holding a detonator up for me to see. Lightning fast and precise as can be, I flung Conformer towards her, relishing her screech of pain. A sick smile twisted my face as I saw the bleeding stump of a wrist left behind. The shuriken was back in my hand and at Mitsuko's throat before she could move the grab the detonator again.

"Let's have a little talk, you and I," I began, continuing to smile. "Here's how this chat is going to work, you see… I'm going to ask you where my father is, and you're going to tell me. You're also going to tell me who your boss is, and why in Gaia I should let you live."

And Crazy had the audacity to laugh. "What makes you think I'll tell you anything, lost, little princess?"

I pressed Conformer a little tighter to her throat, just enough for a tiny line of blood to appear against the milky white skin. "Because… you're out of a job, bitch. The boss-man doesn't want you anymore. Doesn't that just make you gawd-awfully mad?"

Believe it or not, but I'd never interrogated someone before that night. I'd had no idea if I was doing a good job or not, but I still seemed to get Mitsuko's attention.

Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't waver. "He'll come around again… he loves me, you know. He'll realize it before the end."

"Ooh… I wouldn't be so sure, Crazy. He didn't give you that C-4 you wanted, did he? And he seems pretty ready to just dump you, even after all the work you did for him. But… I'll make you a deal. You tell me where he is, and I'll make his death slow and painful instead of yours. I also won't feed your remains to a pack of tonberries which, if you ask me, is a pretty undignified way to go."

She laughed again, sadder this time. "If only you knew, little girl. But you are so blind, blinded by hate… blinded by anger… I will tell you nothing until you take the blindfold off." This Mitsuko was a different one than the one I'd seen throwing a knife through a man's throat. Was different than the one pouting and declaring that he boss loved her. She was being poetic and trippy and just weird as hell. I didn't understand her, and I didn't want to. I just wanted Godo back.

So I pulled back and punched her across the face. Five or six times. Her lip was bleeding when I was finished and I thought I saw the start of a black eye forming. It still didn't make up for what she'd done to my Wutai.

"Tell me where my father is, you fucking psycho bitch!" Conformer was back at her throat, cutting slightly deeper this time. I reached down with one hand and grabbed her remaining good wrist, ready to snap it if she started in with the psycho-babble again.

She laughed.

And oops! There went the wrist. Her cry of pain did make me feel slightly better, though.

I think, for one sickening moment, I understood the Turks. How they could do what they did back when Shin-Ra was in power. There's something seductive about having the power to do harm to another person, to control whether they felt pain or not. It was kind of alluring…in a totally gross, totally demented way.

As soon as the thought has passed through my head, I was disgusted with myself. Something must've shown on my face, because the instant I hesitated, uncertain, Mitsuko had flung me across the room. Broken wrist or no, she was one strong bitch. As I hit the wall and slumped down to the floor, several things happened all at once.

Vincent came rushing in, bleeding and out of breath, but not too worse for wear and Mitsuko snatched up the detonator from where it still lay on the bed. I barely had time to throw up a Wall spell in front of me and Vinnie, before she flipped the switch.

And the world erupted into flames.

.xxx.

When I came to, I was back in Reno's apartment, nestled on the couch under a pile of blankets. I felt like I'd been run over by Cloud at the Chocobo Square and then maybe hit with a few Ultimas.

Reno was kneeling on the floor next to the couch, passed out on the coffee table, but as soon as I sat up, the couch gave a great squeak and his eyes popped open.

"Hey, Princess… how ya feeling?" As he stood and looked at me, there was something guarded in his gaze, something cautious.

"Like crap served cold. Why'd you let Vinnie take the bed and give me the stinking couch?"

"Uh… I didn't."

I frowned… trying to make what he was telling me fit together in a way that made sense.

"So… where's Vinnie sleeping then? Did he go back to Teef's?"

Reno looked at the floor, and didn't say anything.

Something twisted in my gut, cold and horrible and filled with dread.

Still, I had to know. "Reno… where's Vincent?"

Finally, he met my gaze again. "Vincent's gone, kid. They took him."

.xxx.

AN: Heheheh…. Cliffie. Thanks go out to my fabulous reviewers: **What A Lovely Disaster, Rag Daz the Spaz Kat, often indecisive, AnyaToya, serenbach, LittleMissMuddle, Omega Warrior 42, starbrightdreamer, realestboo, kitty materia princess, Kurogane7, CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, Ninja-Yuffie92, and JingYee! **Keep them coming if you don't mind, whether it's constructive criticism, or yelling at me for a cliffie, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

As always, typos are my fault, and I apologize. I tried to proofread, I really did!

~Bru


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I planned to start off the year 2011 by owning VII. Unfortunately… that plan failed T.T

.xxx.

_When I came to, I was back in Reno's apartment, nestled on the couch under a pile of blankets. I felt like I'd been run over by Cloud at the Chocobo Square and then maybe hit with a few Ultimas. _

_Reno was kneeling on the floor next to the couch, passed out on the coffee table, but as soon as I sat up, the couch gave a great squeak and his eyes popped open. _

"_Hey, Princess… how ya feeling?" As he stood and looked at me, there was something guarded in his gaze, something cautious. _

"_Like crap served cold. Why'd you let Vinnie take the bed and give me the stinking couch?" _

"_Uh… I didn't." _

_I frowned… trying to make what he was telling me fit together in a way that made sense._

"_So… where's Vinnie sleeping then? Did he go back to Teef's?" _

_Reno looked at the floor, and didn't say anything. _

_Something twisted in my gut, cold and horrible and filled with dread. _

_Still, I had to know. "Reno… where's Vincent?" _

_Finally, he met my gaze again. "Vincent's gone, kid. They took him." _

.xxx.

I blinked stupidly at the redhead across the room for a few long seconds. "What… do you mean, 'they took him'?" The words felt wrong in my mouth, like moldy bread or something else icky and sickening.

Reno sighed and dragged a hand through his freakishly red hair. "When I saw the explosion, I got my ass over there as fast as I could, yo. I found Vincent first and got him out of the debris and crap before going back to look for you. By the time I finally dug you out, 'cause you were buried pretty deep, kid, I saw them dragging him away. Guards, or some other official thing it looked like. But I was too far away to do anything, and I didn't just want to leave you there. There was fire all over the place and I didn't know where the hell Mitsuko was. I wasn't gonna leave you alone and knocked out to have something shitty happen to."

Whether it was shock or leftover sleepiness or the fact that I'd almost been blown into itty bitty chunks of ninja-princess, I don't know, but it took me a few moments to process everything. Once I'd finally managed to get my foggy brain in gear and working, I then had to do my best to shove any and all personal emotions out of the mix. Still somehow the guilt crept in. This was exactly the situation I had been trying to avoid by keeping my friends out of the loop, after all.

Kicking the guilt aside to deal with later, I was still dead certain.

"So… whoever torched Wutai and hired Mitsuko now has Vinnie."

"Uh, yeah."

"And we're still sitting here on our asses because…?"

"Because we have no fucking clue where they could be holding him, or who's even behind this, or if he's even still alive. Because he told me to keep you safe no matter what, and I'm not gonna let you go running in like a moron and get yourself killed!"

That speech was just begging for an eye-roll, so I gave it one.

"When?"

"When what?"

"When did he tell you to keep me safe?" I didn't know whether to be flattered or annoyed at Vincent's whole keep-Yuffie-safe bender, but I was nonetheless intrigued.

"Right before I went back to look for you. He was kinda with it for a few seconds, but he was passed out by the time he got taken. Told me to keep you safe at all costs, and honestly? When a dude like Valentine's that serious about something, I perk up my sorry, alcohol soaked brain and listen."

I narrowed my eyes into the teeniest slits that I possibly could while still glaring holes in his big, stupid head. "Reno… I don't care if I have to tear you limb from limb for you to let me go rescue Vinnie. I don't care if I have to slice you into ribbons and then pour lemon juice all over your sorry remains. I don't care if I have to cook you over a spit and feed you to _freaking TONBERRIES_, but I _will_ go rescue him, and I will do it with or without your help, so help me Leviathan! But honestly? If Vincent told you to keep me safe, the best way for you to do that is to help me make a plan and then watch my back."

Obviously something in my tone or expression or totally kickass threats must've gotten through to his black, corroded heart, because the next words out or Reno's mouth were:

"…Alright, kid. You win. Where do we start?"

I let out a big gush of air, all relieved and twitchy. "We know there's a guy named Hart involved. And he wasn't like all the other lackeys. When Mitsuko was being all crazy, tantrum-throwing, princess of skankdom, they were all scared and stuff, but not this guy. He was calm as a freaking cucumber or whatever, and the rest of them were peeing themselves. My guess is he's higher up on the food-chain of whatever organization they're all working for. So we figure out who he is, where he is and go from there. Also, we know where at least one of their hideouts is. Vince and I found it the other night when we were tailing Mitsuko, and by the way… did she make it out? I mean, she was literally sitting her big, skanky ass on a pile of explosives."

"Well… I thought I stepped over a piece of her when I was looking for you…"

I snorted. "Total grossness. But you're sure she's dead?"

"You don't survive an explosion like that if you're right in the middle of the fire, princess. Trust me when I tell you, she's long gone from this world and hopefully rotting in hell somewhere." He winked cheekily, but a weird thought tugged on my brain.

"If she's rotting in hell, doesn't that mean you will be too someday?"

"How do ya figure?" His head was cocked to the side, eyes narrowed.

I fidgeted. "Well… her job description matches up pretty well with the old description of the Turks."

Reno sighed, his hand going to his spazz-tastic hair again. "There's a big difference, Yuffs. She likes the killing. She thinks it's _fun_. Anyone who thinks like that deserves to go to hell, and stay there for ten thousand years. Yeah, I've killed people. Innocent people, guilty people… but I never thought it was fun. It was a job. And if I end up in hell someday? At least I'll remember that. Anyway, we've gotta start planning how to find this Hart guy, so stop getting all philosophical and shit."

"Sorry! Sorry, just… Yuffie-brain spasming. Don't mind me."

So we got down to planning. I did my best to describe Hart from memory, and Reno made an absolutely atrocious sketch from my description. Seriously, I sometimes wonder how Tseng and Reeve can refer to him as one of the most skilled men they've ever met. Maybe they're talking about in bed? …And there's a mental image I never want to revisit. _Ever_.

"Reno… seriously? That's the best you can do? Aren't Turks supposed to be all professional and cop-like?" His drawing looked like something a two year old would do… if they were drunk and high and half-asleep.

"What? I'm not an artist, gimme a freakin' break, or cut me some slack or something!" …And apparently Reno is defensive about his nonexistent art skills.

Still, I was exasperated. "Well is there anyone you know who _is_ an artist and could actually do something with my stellar description? Or am I gonna have to break into the WRO again and poke around in the file cabinets 'til I find something useful?"

"Well… now that you mention it…" He trailed off like he was thinking hard, but I'm obnoxious and impatient and didn't give him the time to look all smart and calculating.

"What? Who?"

"'Laney… She's real good at the eyewitness and suspect sketch stuff. I bet she'd whip up a great picture for you and then…" He trailed off again, trying to be all mysterious and stupid.

"Then _what?_ You big, dumb, Turkey…"

"Well, you know who's got the best bar in town. I'm sure Teef would probably recognize him if he'd ever been in the Seventh Heaven."

I was already shaking my head. "No. _No_ way. No _fucking_ way. I'm not bringing anymore of my friends into this! I mean, I let Vincent in and look what happened!"

"Brat, how _dumb_ are you? I mean, I've made excuses for you since the beginning 'cause you were all distraught and emotional and looking for revenge and shit but are you fucking serious?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" If looks could kill, I think Reno might've died just then.

"You and your motley crew of friends helped save the world. Twice, if I'm thinkin' right… and do you honestly think they're gonna be happy to sit back and chug a beer when one of their own is hurting and in danger? If Tifa was nine months pregnant and ready to pop out Strife's emo-spawn, she'd still be ready to go out there and get in the thick of it to help you."

"Which is exactly why I can't let them—"

"It's not about letting them, Princess. They'll find a way somehow. With you going missing first, and now Valentine, you can bet money that they're cooking up some plan to find a way to help you two lovebirds out."

"Nothing lovebirdy about us, Reno!" By that point I was back to being just annoyed with him and his idiotic comments.

"Yeah… we'll see how long that lasts. But anyway, that's not the fucking point. Point is, it's better to get them involved now in some safe job, like having Teef keep an eye out in the bar, or Strife check stuff out while he's on deliveries, than to have whatever they're planning blow up in their faces and get you feeling even more guilty."

There are some times when Reno's actually pretty damn smart. And whenever one of those times happens to occur in my vicinity, I find it hard to repress the urge to smack him upside the head. Which is why I never repress it in the first place.

"Ow! Does that mean you think I'm right?"

I sighed, shaking my head and throwing my bangs into a frenzy. "Get 'Laney over here, you big jerk."

.xxx.

As soon as Elena caught sight of me, she was like one big, excited ball of nervous and confused energy. Kinda like those rubber band balls that Reeve's always working on, except for the super talky thing. And the loud thing, too.

"Yuffie! You're alright? Reeve has been worried sick about you, just wait 'til he—"

"Yeah, yeah, the brat's fine Elena, but we've got bigger things to worry about and we need your help." Reno was already shoving the blonde down into a chair and forcing a pad and pencil into her hands, rambling off the happenings of the last few days to fill her in. Her eyes were wide as oceans as she listened, and her mouth opened and closed a few times like some sort of demented fish, but she didn't say anything until Reno had shut his stupid gob.

Everything was silent for a few minutes. So freaking silent that my ears started ringing. And then Elena started bombarding me with so many questions that I almost wished I was back nearly being blown apart with Mitsuko and her mansion. I couldn't even understand most of what she said, which is sorta saying something since I'm usually the reigning queen of motormouthiness and run-on sentences.

But slowly and eventually, the questions came back into a frequency that humans could actually hear, and a big, honking idea that Reno and I had missed came into being.

"So… you need me to do a sketch off of your description of Hart? Or would it be better to just ask Reeve? I mean, he knows everything that WRO knows, and since they already had a file on Mitsuko, he'll probably know if they have anything on Hart, too. I could still do the sketch if you want though, to give to Tifa."

Reno and I looked at each other over Elena's head.

Reeve.

How could we have been so stupid? I mean… obviously Reno's dumber than a box of special ed rocks, and I'm not exactly the most clued-in person most of the time, but _really_? If we were gonna get PreggyMcPreggers Teef involved, it would be fucking stupid not to get Mr. Reeve I'm-So-Cool-I'm-The-Freaking-President in on what was going on, too.

Slowly, we narrowed our eyes at each other.

"Turkey… you are totally taking the blame for this moronic-ness."

But he was already whipping out his cell phone and paying no attention to me whatsoever.

"Boss? Ya got a minute? I'm gonna be making a stop by your office and you're gonna wanna be there for this. Yeah. Okay. Oh, and make sure Lockheart's there. Nah, I don't care if Strife or anyone else is but… Yeah. Right on, boss-man." Only when he had hung up the phone did he turn to me again. "Princess? Elena? Get your shit, we're going."

Time to face my friends.

.xxx.

Walking into the Calm Incentive's HQ, sandwiched between Reno and Elena, I got quite a lot of stares. And not the look-how-sexy-that-ninja-princess-is kind of stares. Some were of partial recognition, some of confusion and all made me twitchy and uncomfortable. I didn't want to be casually strolling around having reunion time with my friends. I wanted to be out taking action and rescuing Vincent and feeling like I was actually _doing_ something!

I kinda thought about making a run for it at one point or another. Patience? So not one of my virtues.

Still, somewhere deep in my gut, mixed in with all the blood and viscera and other icky internal things, I knew that the way to saving Vinnie was through the upcoming reunions with everyone else. And as much as I hated to be doing nothing, it would lead to doing something useful later, rather than something bad and unhelpful for Vincent.

Still, walking into Reeve's office and seeing all of AVALANCHE (sans Vinnie and Aeris) standing there with shock and happiness and concern kinda made me want to book it out of the HQ and into the nearest stream of moving traffic.

I love my friends, don't get me wrong, but… this was not how I had been envisioning the rest of my revenge-mission going. They were supposed to stay as far away from the action as possible, and there they were, about to be dragged into it.

"Uh… hey guys. Long time no see, huh?" I tacked on a nervous giggled as I scratched the back of my head and looked at the floor.

And then Tifa was hugging me as if she thought I'd disappear and Barrett was yelling and Cid was cursing and Cait Sith was screeching and Nanaki was pacing and I think Cloud gave me a noogie and it was all one big love-fest except for the unforgettable emptiness gnawing at my guts.

_Vinnie's not here. They have him._

There I was, surrounded by my friends, and all I could do was miss the man who hardly ever spoke. The man who had cut off his hair and faced a past he despised to be there for me. The man who had gone against his better judgment to help me in whatever way I thought best. The man who would apparently rather be held captive forever than have me put myself in danger by rescuing him.

I think I felt my heart crack and fissure, and then I was crying big, messy tears that dripped down onto Tifa's nonexistent baby-bump as she held me. She knew right off the bat, of course, and began rubbing soothing lines into my back and making little shushing noises in my ear. Always a mother, that Teef. Slowly, the room went silent as they rest of the crowd realized what was going on. When I had finally composed myself, I pulled back and faced them all with a streaky face and bloodshot eyes and determination pouring from my blood and heart and brain and _soul_.

"We have to get Vincent back."

Silence, and then:

"Damn straight, we do! No one takes one of AVALANCHE and gets away with it without answering to ME!" Barrett looked like he was about to fire off a few rounds into the ceiling, but Cid smacked him upside the head.

"Fuck that! Without answering to _us_!" And as everyone else nodded and smiled and looked like they would be happy as freaking clams to jump into whatever fray demanded jumping into, I realized something. This whole thing wasn't just about Wutai anymore. Whoever was behind this was no longer just messing with the wrath and hatred of the Kisaragi clan. They had not only taken my dad, but Vincent as well, and were now fucking with all of AVALANCHE. In a way, that had put the final nail in their coffin.

In another way, it was a comforting and sickening thought. But back to business.

"Yuffie, let's have the run-down of what's been going on." Leave it to Cloudy-poo to cut to the chase in a crisis.

And so, for what I hoped to be the final time, I told the story of the past few days, with Reno chiming in like a moron every now and again.

The room was silent again, once I'd finished.

"…You were the one who broke into the WRO?" Reeve was smiling and shaking his head all at once. "I suppose I should have known. Other than the run-in with Hans, the break-in was executed flawlessly. And the only file taken had strong ties to Wutai. If I hadn't been so busy worrying about your whereabouts, and Hans hadn't described the intruder as a blonde, I would have figured it out sooner."

"And Vincent cut his hair? As in, more than just a trim?" Tifa had a weird, probing gleam in her eye and I immediately avoided her gaze, watching my foot scuff along the carpeted floor.

"Yup, yup, and yup… and sorry about the whole B&E thing, Reeve. I was just… trying to keep you guys from getting mixed up in all of this. Who knew Vinnie was so persistent, huh? Hehehe…"

Intense scrutiny always makes me nervous. As does being the center of attention. It's a ninja thing I think, since we're normally all about the lurking and creeping about in the shadows.

"So who's this guy Hart?" And once again, it's Cloud Strife to the rescue, saving the White Rose of Wutai from being stared to death!

"Hmm…" Reeve turned to his computer as the rest of the group shifted their attention off of me. "It doesn't ring any bells, not like Mitsuko Somo at least. You said she's been terminated, by the way? That's good news for the general populace. But your father is being held captive as well? That's probably the best news of all. While I have no doubt that you could run Wutai as smoothly and efficiently as any Kisaragi ruler, perhaps even more so, the fact that your father is still alive is still a great stroke of luck for everyone."

I was flooded with both pride and distress at Reeve's musings. "Have you been getting a lot of Wutaiian survivors coming into Edge? Or Rocketown or anywhere?" After all, if Godo or I or anyone was going to run a country, we needed people to govern.

Reeve looked at me with a teensy smile. "We've set up some temporary housing on the outskirts of the city for anyone who's come in, until Wutai is deemed safe to return to and rebuilding has begun. Don't worry, they'll be fine here, and we _have_ been getting a lot of incoming Wutaiians running from the disaster. I think it's safe to say that most made it out okay, if not a little singed."

The monster that had been clawing its way into my chest, released its hold a teeny bit. But there were still issues at hand.

"But you don't recognize the name Hart from anything?"

Reeve's expression got all cloudy with disappointment. "Unfortunately not. I think we may have to go with your original plan of giving Tifa a sketch and letting her see if she can find our suspect in the Seventh Heaven. It _is_ the popular spot of the city, after all… even for criminals."

Turning to Elena, I grinned, hoping it didn't look as exhausted as I was starting to feel. "Alright, 'Laney… I'll get to describing if you get to sketching."

.xxx.

Later that night at the Seventh Heaven, Tifa was bartending downstairs after having spent a good half hour studying Elena's sketch pretty intensely. Cloud was probably tucked away in his office trying to track down any deliveries he might've made to anyone named Hart. Red, Barrett and Cid were probably in their respective rooms, too, trying to stay out of the main bar so as not to scare Hart off if he happened to make an appearance. Reeve was still at HQ, working with Reno, Rude, Elena and Tseng to figure out a plan of attack. I think he also might've been trying to dig up more on Hart, not satisfied that his great, big office of any and all important shenanigans had yielded a big, fat nothing to our cause.

And me? I was curled up in one of the beds upstairs at the bar watching shadows creep along the ceiling and drifting in and out of sleep.

When I was awake, I thought of Vincent. When I slept, he was there, too. I felt kinda guilty for not being as worried about Godo, but something in me couldn't help it. Godo was strong, hardy… and he hadn't gotten pulled into this mess out of some weirdly persistent desire to help me.

But Vincent had, and it was my fault he was gone.

"Next thing you know, I'll be locking myself in a coffin, developing a leather and cape fetish…" I mumbled to myself, squeezing my eyes shut tight against the pain and guilt.

"I'd rather you didn't." A quiet voice commented. Vinnie. So I was dreaming again.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter, afraid that if I opened them, the Dream-Vincent would disappear.

"It's no way to live." He stated simply.

"Aww, Vince… don't sell yourself short. You rocked the leather so well!"

A quiet chuckle. "I meant the coffin and the regrets."

"Eh, I can't help it. All that time we spent together, your teen angst was bound to rub off sometime." I stuck out my tongue even as my eyes stayed closed.

"As I'm sure your obnoxious demeanor and kleptomania wasn't."

"Well now you've gone and hurt my feelings."

"My apologies."

We were both quiet for a while, before a thought struck me.

"Does this mean I've gone nutso? I mean… the real Vincent is stuck in a dungeon somewhere, probably being tortured for no reason, and here I am conversing with a fake, imaginary Vincent like it's the most normal thing in the world. Although, I must say… you are a pretty convincing Vinnie McAngstMuffin Valentine."

"Perhaps you're just dreaming."

"Most likely."

"Or perhaps I'm having the same dream, in whatever dungeon I'm supposedly stuck in."

"Now _that_ would be weird."

"Neither of us has ever been exactly normal."

"Very true."

I could feel the dream-presence of Vinnie somewhere off to my left. It was comforting, even in its strangeness.

"Hey, Vince?"

"Mm?"

"…I miss you."

There was another quiet laugh, but before he could answer, a tap on the door surprised me from my half-slumber. Tifa's face was poking around the door.

"Can I come in?" She asked shyly.

"'Course, Teef. No need to ask." My voice was all muzzy and thick from sleeping, but my eyes still felt gummy and tired.

She came to sit and the end of the bed, and smiled at me. "I know why you did it, you know. Why you tried to keep all of us out."

"Teef… you and Spikes're having a baby, plus Denzel, and Barrett's got Marlene, and Cid has Shera and Reeve has, like, the whole world minus Wutai to worry about, and Nanaki has to stay alive so he can someday find another one of him and bring his species back from extinction or whatever. None of you needed to get tangled up in my country's crap."

"Except Vincent."

"Well… that wasn't supposed to happen." In a hurry to get away from that topic, I brought up the one thing I knew would distract Teef from anything. "So how's the fetus?"

Immediately a goofy grin spread across her face. "Oh, Yuffie! Being pregnant is like… it's amazing. It's a completely life-changing thing, and I'm not even that far along yet.

"Yeah, I've heard that puking up your pickles and ice cream breakfast every morning can be a real experience." But Tifa waved my sarcasm away.

"Honestly, the morning sickness hasn't been that bad, and the cravings haven't gotten _too_ weird yet. It's more just the fact that… I have a life inside of me. I have a little person who's half me and half Cloud and is special already."

"Are you gonna find out what it is when you're far enough along?"

"I don't think so. I mean, as long as it's healthy, neither of us care about the gender."

I shook my head with a grin and a wink. "Oh no, I meant like, if it's all human or part chocobo, 'cause… I mean, have you _seen_ Cloud's hair?"

Tifa laughed, joy oozing from every syllable. "Yuffie! You're terrible"

"I just say what everybody thinks. And by the way, your answer about boy versus girl is so totally lame. You know you want a little girl to play dress-up with and teach to kick all the boys' asses! Plus, you've already got Denzel as a surrogate son, so why not add a little more estrogen back into the house?" But Tifa just smiled and didn't say a word.

We talked babies for a bit longer, Tifa chattering happily about her doctor's appointments and due date and if she wanted to have a baby shower or not. Finally, when there was a lag in the conversation, she turned to me with a more serious smile.

"Yuffie… I do have to tell you. We found him. Hart. He came in a few hours ago, and he even paid with a credit card. Rude is apparently really good with computers and all that tech stuff, so he'll be able to pull up his address, phone number, records… basically any info we might need, he can pull from the credit card number. We can start planning what to do tomorrow, after we've all gotten some good sleep."

My heart lurched then sped up into a rapid, uneven rhythm. "Vince…." I breathed his name so quietly, I didn't think Tifa heard at first. But then her hand found mine and squeezed reassuringly.

"We'll get him back, Yuffs…. You'll get him back."

.xxx.

That night, I dreamed of hyper, laughing children, with inky black hair and familiar red eyes.

.xxx.

AN: I'm way tired… but I finished this for you guys! I don't know when the next chapter will be up, since I go back to college on Sunday, but I'll try my hardest to get it up sometime next weekend. Thanks to the awesome reviewers from the last chapter: **Knock-Out92, Kurogane7, often indecisive, What A Lovely Disaster, CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, LittleMissMuddle, realestboo, serenbach, JingYee, and MadBlossomingPrincess**.You all have my eternal love and gratitude, and please keep it up! Next chapter we get to the rescuing and well as more AVALANCHE-y reunion stuffs!


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I'm just a poor, college student who is making no money off of this. Square owns everything you recognize…for now.

.xxx.

You know how they say hindsight is twenty-twenty? Well, I've generally never paid much attention to what "they" say, mostly because I've always imagined a room full of stuffy, old men with long, Gandalf-the-Grey beards making up stupid rules like that, but… whoever they are, they got that one right. We should've realized that everything was falling into place just a little too easily. I mean, we'd been through two big crises before, it's not like we were inexperienced with that sort of thing. Maybe our common sense was just all screwy and messed up with worry for Vincent and Godo, I don't know but… we should have realized.

.xxx.

The morning after our grand and emotional reunion, we all got to an early start, meeting up at Reeve's HQ to see what magic Rude had worked with Hart's credit card.

"Well, I highly doubt he's gonna be holding Valentine and Godo at his house, yo. We need to figure out who he's working for, and go after them."

"OR! We stake out his house and I can bust in and interrogate it out of him!"

Reno just shot me one of his rare, withering looks. "Yeah, 'cause the last time you tried that you didn't almost get yourself blown into itty-bitty, brat-Princess pieces." Stupid Turkey, trying to be all mature for once.

"I'm actually with the brat on this one! None of this goddamn sitting around on our sorry asses!"

"Thank you, you nicotine-addicted, old man."

"If Vincent and Lord Godo's lives are at stake, it may be our best option to be cautious and take the slower option." Nanaki was looking thoughtful.

"Nanaki! It's Vinnie and my dad; we can't just leave them there while we take our freaking time! Godo's all old and Vince is…"

But Reeve was already shaking his head calmly. "Vincent is Turk-trained, Yuffie. If anyone can handle whatever it is he's going through, it's Vincent. And assuming that they're being held together, he'll be able to help your father through it."

I choked on a laugh. "_Vince_? You've got to be kidding! He's not exactly Mr. Social-Moral-Support-Through-Tough-And-Torturous-Times! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the little broodster but—"

"HA! I knew it! You totally have a thing for hi—"

"_RENO! _For once in your stupid, Turkey life can you shut your freaking pie-hole so we can we get back to the issue at hand, you weird… matchmaking… freak!_"_

There was utter silence as I finished my rant, panting around a bit and probably looking like a tomato that was about to have a freaking aneurism or something.

Cloud cleared his throat then, almost like he was trying to cover a laugh. "What about phone records?" And even though he had almost laughed at my discomfort and shenanigans, I had the sudden urge to grab Cloud and plant a big, sloppy kiss right on his lips. He did save me by changing the subject, after all.

"Well how in the hell are phone records gonna help us, Spikes?" Barrett was waving his arms around, outwardly as agitated as I was.

But Tifa had caught on faster than any of us. "Cloud's right. If we check his phone records, we can see who he's been in most frequent contact with. It could definitely lead us to who he's working for, and as long as Rude can pull them up, it should be pretty fast, too."

Sometimes I could just kiss Cloud _and _Tifa. But not at the same time, you perv.

I started firing off questions as fast as they turned up in my brain, not even pausing for breath between the question marks. "Rude? Can you get them? And if you get them can you figure out who Hart was calling from just the number? And if you can do that can you get their address? And—"

"Brat! Let the man do his goddamn job!"

"Cid? I revoke my thanks from earlier. You actually, really, really suck. And _why is everyone staring at me like I'm a freaking exhibit?_" I rounded on the rest of the group, who seriously were staring. I was sick of being scrutinized for caring, and sick of being judged for not having the best planning skills and _sick to death_ of being told to wait, to think, the take my gawd-given time. My fingers itched to reach for the Stop-All Materia combo I had in my back pocket—if they were all frozen I could just run out and take care of the rescuing without having to wait for a chocobo-engraved invitation or something equally as dumb. But Cid saw my twitchy hands and glared. Then, he grabbed me in a headlock and dragged me from the office, my indignant squawks muffled against his arm.

"What the heck was that for, you crazy old man?" I shouted once he'd finally released me, probably attracting even more stares from everyone else meandering about the hallway. I was too annoyed to care, and Cid just stood across from me, unfazed with sympathetic blue eyes.

"Ya gotta get yourself under control, kid. I know it's yer dad and I know it's Vince, but yer acting like a fuckin' lunatic."

"And this is different from my normal, everyday behavior…. How?" My arms were crossed and my foot tapping, every inch the bratty teenager I used to be.

"Yer gonna put them in danger. You know I'm all for ya busting yer crazy ass in there and savin' the goddamn day, but you have to calm down first."

"Cid… if it was your dad or mom and… and… and Shera! Would you be able to just sit back without asking questions? Would you be able to patiently say 'Well, Gee, let's just take our sweet time with this while they do gawd knows what to my friends'?" Why couldn't my friends just understand _why_ I was acting this way.

My voice took on a pleading note that I hated to hear from myself. "I just wanted to know if Rude was gonna be able to get all the info we need, and if not then we need to start thinking something else up! Gawd, if Godo goes… then Wutai's mine and… I'm twenty-two! I'm still just a kid and… Gawd, I just…" I looked up to the ceiling, blinking like a twitchy freak to keep myself from crying.

I felt two tentative arms tug me into a shirt that smelled like cigarettes and engine grease and spilt tea. "An' what about Vince? You know he can handle himself better than anyone."

I shook my head violently against the cotton of his shirt. "You don't know… you weren't there but… Leviathan, Vinnie's always _been_ there! Through Meteor and stupid Kadaj and everything. Sure, he didn't talk much but… Cloud always paired us together and the only reason he got messed up in this is 'cause he was all emo and concerned and this is all my fault! And I'll never get to tell him that I'm sorry, that I should've listened, that he's smarter than me and—and—and—" I was blabbering like a moron and crying like a broken faucet and probably freaking Cid out with my ramblings, but he just kept a tight hold on me. He didn't do anything frilly like rub my back or pet my hair or anything, he just stayed there until I was all cried out and quiet again.

"Fer the record," he began and quiet and scratchy-like, "Vince isn't gonna blame you fer what happened. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that he'd be fuckin' pissed to know how yer blaming yerself." He scratched the back of his head, a little sheepishly. "I mean… as pissed as he ever gets. You know what I mean."

I pulled away smiling, a little sniffly still. "He'd probably just give me one of those stupid glares all like, 'Yuffie, this is my punishment for just one of the multitude of sins I have committed in my extended and wretched existence. Do not waste your young and innocent life on regrets, brooding is for me, myself and I, alone,' ya know?"

Cid chuckled, pulling out a pack of cigs and fiddling with them. I think maybe crying women make him nervous, or something.

"When yer ready, we'll go back inside, kid." His voice was gruff, but I could hear the fatherly affection behind it. Cid may not like to admit it, but he's a big softie at heart. Under all the tar and tea and cursing, at least. As I finished pulling myself together, I was glad for a lot of things, but mostly I was just glad Cid chose not to comment on my word-barf comparison of Vinnie and my relationship to his and Shera's. It was just too much to think about and process and my head hurt enough from arguing and crying.

With a deep breath, I squared my shoulders and threw open the door as jovially as I could muster.

"So my dearest friends and fellow adventurers, what did we miss?"

Tifa smiled warmly as I bounded in, Cid shaking his head behind me. "Well, it looks like we've got two options."

"Alrighty, what and what?" My hands were planted on my hips and the patented Kisaragi ready-for-anything smirk was stretching across my face.

It was Rude who answered, to my astonishment. "Two men, one living in the same neighborhood as Mitsuko and the other one living closer to the slums. Nathaniel Marthrace and Charles Draknor. Each has a criminal record which made it easy enough to get their information." Rude, not unlike Vinnie, usually didn't talk much around us Avalanchers. He's probably more talkative when it's just him and his Turkey comrades, I guess.

"So… what? We split into two teams?"

Cloud nodded, leaning against the wall looking all leadery and nonchalant. "Two small teams…. It's too delicate a situation to send everyone in and risk everyone getting caught."

"Well, I'm definitely going in! One of these guys has been screwing with my family and my country and I'm not exactly happy about it." This whole sorry mess started with revenge and there was no way I was going to end it without getting some nice, shiny, vengeful closure.

Again, Cloud nodded. "Tifa's obviously staying out of it."

"But I'll be keeping an eye out at the bar for both of them, and Hart, too. The great thing about criminal records is they come with pictures!" Tifa beamed, positively glowing. Whether it was from those crazy baby-hormones or 'cause she was just happy to have a job to do, I had no freaking clue.

"Hmm… so maybe the Turks take one place and the rest of us the other?" But as Reeve and Cloud were nodding, Reno was shaking his head.

"No."

"No?" I scrunched up my eyebrows, trying to see what the redhead was getting at.

He stood from his lounging position in one of Reeve's office chairs, swaggering to stand in front of me. "No. For one thing, those teams are two big. We need to keep it limited to three people, max. Also, I promised Valentine I'd keep you safe." He smirked, winking. "Sorry, Princess, but you're stuck with me. There's no way in hell I'm getting shot at for not keeping Vince's girlfriend safe."

For what felt like the thousandth time that week, I smacked Reno upside the head. "Turkey… you seriously need a girlfriend. Then you can worry about _your_ relationship, instead of whatever imaginary one you've made up for me and Vinnie."

I could feel the amused looks from my friends boring into the two of us as Reno smirked down at me and I glared back up at him. Choosing to steer the conversation back to where it was supposed to be, I stomped my foot and looked at Reeve.

"So! What are the teams?"

.xxx.

It was dark out and I was finishing blow-drying my black-again hair when the knock on my door came.

"You ready in there, Princess? Your prince needs rescuing!"

Slamming open the door, I scowled up into Reno's stupid, too-pretty face. "I hate you so much, sometimes."

He just slung an arm around my shoulder, steering me downstairs as he took a long drag on the cigarette perpetually hanging from his lips. "You love me, yo. Your life would be incomplete without my extraordinary good looks and inappropriate humor."

"My life would be a whole lot secondhand-smoke free without your stupid Turkey-ness infecting everything." I grumbled, trudging along next to him.

I was partnered up with Reno and Rude, and beginning to wish that the latter was the talkative one of the two. I mean, at least Rude would probably have intelligent things to say and I wouldn't feel like I was losing brain cells after every word I heard. Cloud, Cid and Elena made up the other group, leaving Barrett, Red and Tifa to hang back at the bar and keep us posted if anyone of interest showed up. My group was heading to Draknor's and Cloud's would be going to Marthrace's.

As we headed out the door of the bar, all of us dressed in black except for the blue-suit-obsessed Turks, Tifa, Red and Barrett called out their goodbyes.

"Be careful!"

"Keep yourselves safe."

"COME BACK IN ONE PIECE, FOOS!"

And as the bar door closed behind our group, the six of us split in half and went our separate ways.

We had hardly taken ten steps when Reno's obnoxious mouth began flapping…again. "Yo, Princess... whatever you do this time, just try to avoid pissing people off to the point where they blow the building up, okay?"

Rolling my eyes up to the light-polluted night sky, I sighed. "Do you ever get sick of hearing your own voice? 'Cause I think I'm sick enough for the both of us."

"These dulcet tones? Never get old."

The response barely deserved the scoff it got from me. I even think I heard Rude sigh a little bit, but I could've been imagining things.

"So what would you have me do, oh fire-crotched one?"

"Do the sneaky thing."

"You're _so_ helpful."

"We find your father and Valentine and we get them out. We will save dealing with Draknor for another time." Ever the voice of reason, that Rude… when he actually voices anything, at least.

We continued on our merry way, trying to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. Which, come to think of it, was probably an impossible feat seeing as Rude's pretty big and hulking, Reno has the craziest hair you'll ever see, and I had a giant shuriken strapped to my back… but I digress.

Somewhere deep down, the old adventuring Yuffie was stirring. I mean, this was at least the fourth time in a week that I found myself sneaking about in the night, ready to break and enter and rescue and do all those great and assorted ninja things. It wasn't the same sort of adventuring as Meteor, but it was an adventure nonetheless.

It's one of the reasons I've always been so reluctant to take the throne from Godo and officially become Lady Kisaragi instead of just Yuffie. When that happens… my traveling days will be over. I won't be able to just pack up and take off for Teef's, or head out into the wilderness on my own. I won't even be able to wear my too-small shorts and obnoxious boots, and my shuriken will probably sit in a corner getting rusty and dull. I'll have to marry someone I don't love and pop out heirs and long for the days when I was free.

But for the time being, I _was_ free to adventure and ninja about and rescue my friends and family. And, while not exactly the circumstances I usually preferred for my adventuring, I was going to enjoy the freedom as much as I could. And I _was_ going to save Godo… and maybe Vince, although he'd never really needed saving except from his emo, sin-filled delusions.

Although, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that if this had been in the pre-Meteor days, Godo would have had a conniption if he found out just how much time I was spending with Turks. He'd go on some rant about how they're clouding my judgment or trying to take advantage of me or lead me down a path of sin and bloodshed and blah, blah, blah.

If that was the case though, I always wondered what he thought the life of a ninja was. It's not like we don't see our fair share of bloodshed either. But… As I strolled down that muggy street, sandwiched between Reno and Rude like the big brothers I never had (or in Reno's case, never, ever, _ever_ wanted), I promised myself that once I got Godo out of this mess, I'd let him rant at me 'til the cows left and came home again a thousand times and never get annoyed by it ever again.

I promised it to myself, over and over and over again, until I was sure the words had stitched themselves into my heart seams or brainstem or at the very least my forever-memory, and as the heated mist of the streetlights swirled around me, it was easy to believe that things would turn out alright.

.xxx.

The house wasn't impressive, not in the way Mitsuko's had been. It looked like it had maybe five rooms on each floor, and a quick glance through the window showed sparse decorating with gawd-awful style when there was any. Like, we're talking plaid _everything_, like one of those cheapo motel rooms, ya know? But I digress… the fact of the matter was, generally when you see a house that looks like that upstairs, it means all the shifty, evil shenanigans goes on downstairs in basement-land. The implications of that fact in regards to Vinnie made me a little queasy in the belly.

However, it also meant that the security for the part of the house where the non-shifty, non-evil shenanigans went on would be pretty lax.

By the time we got to the house, it was time to get right down to business, thankfully. As the resident Make-Things-Go-Boom Guy, Rude was going to be staying outside, setting up shop with his cache of explosives. If anything was getting blown up this time, it was gonna be because _we_ said so…. Not 'cause psycho chick was being… umm, psycho. That left me to do the breaking in, and Reno to stand there and look obnoxious while I did it.

"Yo, you sure that this is the sneakiest way to get in?" Reno lounged against the outer wall as I crouched in front of the back door being super ninja-like with a lock-pick.

"Turkey, how many times do I have to explain? It's sneaking into the basement we have to worry about, but up here will be no problemo. A piece of cake. Easy as pie. Killing one not-so-sneaky bird with a very sneaky stone. Taking Materia from a baby. There's nothing to be worried about up here, capiche?" And then I thought about it for a second. "Reno… you're a Turk. You should know these things almost as well as I do."

He smirked at me in the darkness. I couldn't really see it, but I could feel it leering at me from its perch on his stupid, freckly face. "I know, kid. But you're really entertaining when you try to get angry. Besides, my Turk duties usually involved being the getaway pilot or putting the barrel of a gun against someone's head and pulling the trigger. Tseng always did the ninja stuff." I shook my head and went back to my lock-picking. Distraction-free, it took me about .23 seconds to get the door unlocked and swinging open on rusty hinges. Together, we entered the darkened house.

Immediately, the sense of seriousness closed in, and something cold and slimy started twisting my guts into knots.

Once inside, we did a quick sweep of the house. Reno took the upstairs, while I checked around on the ground floor. More plaid, a couple of moth-eaten rugs and a thing of key lime pie yogurt in the fridge. Whoever Draknor was, he was doing a terrible job of making it look like he lived up here. He also was doing a terrible job with his security. The door to the basement sat plainly in the kitchen, painted all white and innocent looking. It was also ajar.

I guess I just thought he was careless or something. Still, there was the smallest inkling of suspicion gnawing away at the back of my brain like a demented hamster, but I kicked it away and stomped on it. Vinnie and Godo were down there, and I needed to get them out. I didn't have time for niggling, nibbling doubts.

Reno reappeared at my elbow a few minutes later, speaking quietly. "Nothing upstairs, Yuff. Literally nothing. Not even a bed or a rug or some curtains, yo."

"Not much down here, either… unless you count multitudes of plaid. Seriously, I hope Rude burns this place to the ground just to get rid of the terrible decorating." We smiled at each other for a second, before glancing at the basement door.

"Down there, huh?"

"Down there. Listen, Reno… I know Rude said to leave Draknor for another time but… this guy destroyed my country. I'm gonna try to take him out. So if… if we get down there, and he's got both Godo and Vince… get Godo out. I can handle Draknor, especially if I've got Vincent in any sort of fighting shape. But Godo… he… just…" I mentally flailed for the words, and for once Reno wasn't snarky. Eyes the color of a radioactive ocean met mine and he squeezed my elbow.

"Leave it to me, princess. I'll get your old man out." And with that we were drawing our weapons and heading down into the dank, smelly basement.

As we crept down the stairs, Conformer sweaty in my palm and Reno's EMR crackling quietly, an odd noise drifted up towards us. It was not the anguished yelps of someone being tortured, or the angry threats of a torturer, but the sound of someone laughing. When I think back on what happened after that, it all gets kinda choppy in my head—like everything was moving in slow-motion or overshadowed by a strobe-light of awfulness and fear.

I remember how I tried to gulp to dislodge the rock that had taken up residence in my throat.

I remember the stairs were uneven beneath my feet, making it slow-going in order to stay quiet. When we finally did reach the bottom, the dirt floor we found was a great help, muffling out footfalls in the echoing tunnel.

I remember sticking close to the stone wall, my back scraping against it.

And I remember coming to the door, hearing the laughter even louder. There was a tiny, barred window. I peeked through it, and reeled back into Reno, horror-stricken by what I saw there.

The room beyond was large, completely made of stone and drafty. Off to the side, my father was slumped in a crumpled pile against the wall. A pool of his own blood was spreading against the dirt floor underneath him, some of it dried and brown from days ago, most of it shocking and red and fresh against everything else. The only good thing seemed to be the lack of chains binding my father's prone body. Vincent was kneeling and chained against the wall directly across from me, bare-chested and bleeding, a latticework of angry cuts glistening against his pale skin. Blood slipped down his body, like angry tears. And the laughter? The laughter was tearing painfully from his throat.

Draknor stood over him, a thin knife in his gloved hand. Both the blade and his hands were coated with Vincent's blood. "How long until your friends find you, Valentine? How much longer do you think I'll have to make you bleed?" As Draknor's greasy voice filled the room, Vincent's laughter drowned it out, his head lolling back against the wall.

And in that moment a wave of anger crashed over me with all the force of a freight train, and I was thrust back into a memory. Standing aboard the _Shera_, a pile of materia cradled in my arms, annoyed that Cloud got to have all the fun of facing off with Kadaj all by himself.

I've never forgotten what Tifa said that day, how right she was. She's generally right about most things, but I think that day she might have been rightest she's ever been. When we were all on that gawd-forsaken airship,watching Cloud take on Kadaj/Sephiroth, she started talking about the incredible strength we all gained during Meteor. And she was right. On that journey, there was something burning in each of us, a power beyond the training we'd all grown up with. I don't know if it was 'cause we had the close friendship bonds linking us together, or if it was the sense of urgency, or if it was simply because we were all a bit younger back then, but it was there. Strength and power greater than what any of us had ever known. But somewhere along the line, we lost it. Cloud had managed to get that strength back that day…. And something about seeing Godo, slumped in the corner bleeding out and hardly breathing, and Vince chained up and cut up and laughing like it was the only thing keeping him alive, awoke that strength inside of me again.

My leg tensed, the long-forgotten warmth coiling in the muscles. Turning to Reno with steel in my voice and ready to fly from my hand, I whispered tersely, "Get Godo out," and then I let my foot fly. The bang as it rammed into the door separating me from Godo and Vince's torture chamber brought a grin to my face, and as said door went flying off its hinges into the gloom beyond, I strode into the room with all the cockiness of the immature, ninja-thief I had been during Meteor.

"Looks like your time's up now, Draknor."

Reno was at Godo's side in a flash, and the two of them had disappeared up and out of the basement before Draknor could even turned around. I quickly thanked Leviathan for Reno's creepy, cracked-out squirrel speed.

And then they were gone and it was just me, Vince, and Draknor.

He finally turned to face me, eyes beady and bug-like against waxy skin. The resemblance to Hojo made me shudder. "Ah, Princess Kisaragi… what a pleasant surprise, meeting the renowned White Rose of Wutai. Tell me, was it not a beautiful sight to see your country go up in flames? Was it not wonderful to hear the screams of your people as they burned to a crisp? Was the sight of the Pagoda burning against the night sky not the most beautiful vision you've ever laid eyes on?" My hand tightened unconsciously on Conformer, and as I fought to control my temper, a few things flashed through my head. Get my revenge and end this once and for all, right then and there? Or draw it out and get some answers beforehand?

But, of course, I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, The Great Ninja Master, and White Rose of Wutai. And there was no way I was passing up the chance for immediate, swift, revenge.

That was one of many mistakes I had made that day.

With a blur of motion and the whistling of metal through air, my arm flew back and forward, losing Conformer with a snap. One point embedded itself in Draknor's chest with a satisfying _thud_, and I waited to see the blood drip slowly from his body, bleeding revenge realized for my fallen country.

And then I heard Vincent's startled cry. "Yuffie, _no_!"

And felt a sharp pain blossom in my gut. A shocked cry puffed from my mouth as I looked across the room, first at Draknor's now-empty hands, and then at Vincent's pained face. Confused hands found the hilt of a knife buried in my belly, slick with my own blood, and my knees somehow found their way to the floor. There was a great straining and scratching and clanking of chains being pulled from a wall, and Vincent was suddenly at my side, supporting me before I could crumple to the floor completely.

"Don't worry, she won't die from a wound like that. If I've judged correctly, I should have missed any major organs and arteries. Although, if I was even the slightest bit off then I might have hit her abdominal aorta, and she'll be in a lot of trouble."

Draknor was looking me over with a clinical eye, Conformer still buried in his chest. He looked own in annoyance, as though noticing it for the first time, and with a grunt and squelch, he pulled it from his body, tossing it across the room towards me.

"You really do need to know what you're getting yourself into, before you come running in to play rescue, little princess." He tsked at me, and if I hadn't been so concerned about the blood leaking from my stomach, I might've tried to punch him in his stupid, greasy face. But he wasn't done talking, and I wasn't in a position to be punching anyone.

"You see," he continued, still in the patronizing tone, sounding kind of like Marlene when she's talking to Denzel sometimes, "Burning down your backwater country wasn't just for fun, or because I was bored… Have you noticed, my dear? The power of the materia is fading. As Mako goes out of use, so does the materia's power. But I? I found a new power, a stronger power. A power that could only be countered by one country, one tradition. But with Wutai decimated, that option has died with it. With nothing to counter the Black Power, what will become of it? What will become of me? You wonder, but I know…. I know what will happen. I will become a god of Hell!"

And as Vince and I looked on, eyes locked on the crazed man before us in horrified fascination, the darkness seemed to draw from each corner of the room of the basement, of the entire house itself, and swirl and solidify around Draknor like an ornate set of armor. There was wind whipping around the stone room, sending my hair stinging into my eyes. His voice was a terrible, echoing crescendo around us, tainted by something demonic and terrible and Evil. His feet left the floor and he seemed to hover on a black cloud of mist, and all the air seemed to be sucked out of the room and drawn into his black armor.

"Yuffie, we must get out of here!" Vincent yelled over the din, and with a groggy nod, I snatched Conformer from the floor and hauled myself to my feet.

We ran from the room, stumbling all over the place like drunken chocobos, and when I thought my legs were going to give out, Vincent grabbed my hand and dragged me forward. I could feel Draknor behind us, pulling the air around us into a vortex that threatened to suck us back into his terrible embrace. Vincent just dragged me faster, his hand nearly crushing mine in an iron grip. As we sprinted up the stairs and finally made it out the back door, I let out a scream into the night, hoping Rude would hear, wherever he was. With a huge, crashing _BOOM_, the house behind us exploded, propelling us away from the flames engulfing it, and up into the night air.

Midair, Vincent turned us, so that when we finally crashed down onto street, I landed atop his chest. Too relieved to feel pain, too scared to move, I simply lay there like a boned, gutted, very dead fish. After a few minutes had passed, I forced my eyelids up, and looked at Vincent's face. He was watching me, eyes half-opened.

"Vince?" The words scraped like gravel against my throat.

"Mm?"

"Why is it always gods? Why couldn't the bad guy want to become a tonberry, or a golden chocobo, or… A moogle… Or…" I sighed in tired, pained frustration.

"There does seem to be a pattern…" His voice was fuzzy and fading.

And then my eyelids rebelled and my eyes rolled back and my brain shut off.

.xxx.

When I woke up, it was with the vehement wish that I could get through the next week (or preferably month… maybe even year) without being blown up, stabbed or needing to face off with any wanna-be gods. And then I focused more on my surroundings and realized that my hand was experiencing the distinct feeling of being held.

By Vinnie.

I was tucked away into one of the upstairs beds at Teef and Cloud's, and Vincent was asleep in the chair next to my bed. And he was holding my hand. First, I tried squashing the sixteen-year-old-Vinnie-Obsessed Yuffie who immediately popped up in my head dancing around and singing like a demented Spice Girl. When that was unsuccessful, I decided it was probably better to just let the sloppy, silly smile plop itself across my cheeks, and enjoy the moment.

Reality, however, has a nasty habit of cropping up exactly when you wish it would just stay away, and as much as I wanted to just lay there and enjoy the feeling of Vinnie's hand surrounding mine, I knew I had to get up and go see what was going on with the others, and especially how Godo was doing.

As I sat up, the bandaged hole in my stomach that I had conveniently forgotten about, got angry with my attempt to move and decided to take revenge. Surprised at its attack, I yelped as it throbbed painfully. Vincent started awake, but didn't let go of my hand. Gray met crimson and we just looked at each other for a few long moments.

He finally cleared his throat, and his gaze flickered down to my stomach. "Yuffie… are you alright?"

"Other than the stab-wound, I'm just peachy, Vince. How's the Sudoku grid on your chest feeling?"

His lips twisted into the ghost of a smile. "Painful."

"Well, with the way you were laughing about it down there, it didn't seem all that bad."

But he saw the concern beneath my pathetic attempt at humor, and shook his head. "Defense mechanism. One I hadn't needed to use since my Turk days, but it does come in handy when trying to withhold information."

Silence reigned in the room as I took everything in. "Did he… did he ask you lots of stuff?" I fidgeted with the blankets covering my legs.

"He was mainly just looking to cause pain, I think. Apparently his plan is much greater than just destroying Wutai and its leaders." He let go of my hand to rake his own through his hair. "I'm afraid your part in this is just going to get bigger."

I sighed. "Well, if that's the case, Oh Great Yuffie Protector, let's try not to get you captured like a big dork this time, okay?"

"A… big dork?"

I giggled. "Yup, a big, scary, overprotective dork."

I think if Vincent were capable of rolling his eyes, he would have just then. "Well, if we are done discussing my position as a dork, and if you feel you can move, then we should probably go down and see what the others are up to. And no doubt you'd like to see your father."

"Right-o, Vinnie!" I grinned cheekily over at him, happy that everyone was alive and here and safe, even if I couldn't go bounding around like my usual Yuffie-self.

I also didn't miss the hand Vincent placed at the small of my back as he steered me towards the stairs. My inner sixteen-year-old wouldn't have let me miss it.

In the bar, it was a more somber affair. A few of the tables had been shoved together to make one big space for all of us to sit around. Everyone seemed to brighten when Vinnie and I appeared, and Tifa hurried over to give me a big hug. I gave her a brief squeeze as she rattled off question about my general health and wellbeing, but my attention was really focused on the person sitting at the head of the table.

Godo was apparently not in good enough shape to stand up, but that didn't stop me from giving him a tight hug anyway. "You're looking better, old man."

"Getting there, getting there…" He said, wheezing a little. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to squeeze the life out of me so you could take the throne."

Planting my hands on my hips, I scowled. "Well excuse me for showing some daughterly affection! Geez, that's the last time I ever act like I like you!"

We glared at each other, eyes narrowed and scowling. And then, we both broke out into matching grins. In a gentler tone, Godo thanked me, placing his hand over mine. And with all reunions properly finished, Vince and I took our seats at the table and got ready to talk about all sorts of associated, world-saving business.

"So… What went down at Marthrace's place?" I planted my chin in my hands and looked across the table at Cloud.

"Nothing. Apparently Marthrace is Hart's beloved grandfather, and they talk almost every day." There was a disgusted note in his voice and he shook his head, spikes swaying along with the motion.

Reno rolled his eyes and lounged back in his chair. "Well, it's nice to know that evil, country-destroyer's still care about their families, yo."

"And Vincent's filled us in on what happened at Draknor's." Nanaki piped in, as Tifa's face was downcast.

"But we're still fuzzy on what it all means." She sighed, a frown marring her face.

"I'm not." All heads whipped toward Godo, and he sighed. "Perhaps some tea, and then an explanation?"

Cid immediately hopped up to take care of the tea part (he would), and I looked over at my dad curiously.

He had a heartbroken look on his face when he met my eyes.

"Yuffie… I'm so sorry."

.xxx.

AN: And I'M so sorry for the delay! This chapter seriously did not want to be written. In fact, this chapter kind of kicked my ass. I begged with it, pleaded with it, got angry… I even threw things. I had a tantrum, I beat it with a stick and still… It refused to be written. Literally, though, I've been working on this chapter for the three or four weeks since the last one, and it really didn't want to cooperate with me. But now it is here! And seeing as (Vincent) Valentine's Day is approaching, the next chapter will be swifter in coming. Anyhoo, despite my absolute frustration and anger with the chapter, BIG, HUGE, GLOMPING thanks go out to : **JingYee, often indecisive, MadBlossomingPrincess, Kurogane7, What A Lovely Disaster, kitty materia princess serenbach, and Omega Warrior 42! **Seriously, if any of you are still hanging in here after how long this update took… You're the freaking best. And I'll make you cookies. And buy you plushies. And you'll have my eternal love. For serious.

And, as always, any typos are my fault. I did try to proofread though!

~Bru


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Sigh. I still own nothing.

AN: What's that? Triangles? Of love? Somewhat introduced in this chapter?

.xxx.

The Kisaragi Clan has many enduring and admirable qualities that have been passed down throughout the generations. The Patented Kisaragi Grin, for one thing, is as famous and revered as the myth of Leviathan's creation. We're also known for our shrewd business skills, perfect aim, and extreme height deficiency. However, if I had to pick the Kisaragi quality that is the most well-known, the widest spread, and the most feared, it would be the fact that every single descendant of my family line is as stubborn as a freaking bull chocobo.

Godo is no exception, and neither is yours truly.

We Kisaragis do not apologize. We're just too stubborn. Hell, I didn't apologize after stealing all my friends' Materia and leaving them pretty much defenseless against Don Corneo's wyvern-thing of Spastic and Unsuccessful Doom. I didn't apologize for locking Teef and Spikes in a closet for twenty-four hours last Valentine's Day. And I sure as _Hell_ didn't apologize for replacing Vinnie's shampoo with syrup that one time. Call it what you want, charming quirk or fatal character flaw, my family generally does not apologize for anything—we shift the blame to someone else or proclaim that our actions came only from the best intentions, hence no apology needed.

So, when Godo apologized to me all on his own, _sincerely_ and without me having to rant and rave and have a general shit fit, I knew things were about to get very serious.

I threw my hands up, waving them around defensively. "Whoa, whoa! What's with the sorryness? I just saved your butt, old man, and, yeah, Draknor is off being all shadowy and dark and creepy, but we're all safe here and there should be no apologies!"

But Godo sighed and shook his head, pity in his eyes.

For the record? I _hate_ the pitying look. And getting it from Godo? Was enough to set my teeth, and my nerves, on edge. Still, a real ninja knows when to put aside frustration, shut up, and listen. And Cid had come back with the tea (excellently brewed, I might add… I'll never understand how the walking, cursing Nicotine Factory got so good at making tea), and a few sips of the steamy liquid had my nerves relaxing.

Godo took a few big gulps as well, before looking around at our motley crew of world-savers. "This story goes back to the dawn of time, or at least to Wutai's creation," he began, and his voice had taken on the booming tone it always got when he told the nine myths of Leviathan at the Solstice Festivals, and I could see everyone around the table lean in just barely, captivated already. Kind of like how Reno gets when he sees a pair of particularly large, definitely fake tits. Only not as pervy.

"It is thought in our culture that many millennia ago, the world was completely covered in water. Leviathan, Great Serpent and God of All Tides ruled over the waters, keeping peace among his subjects. Yet he grew restless with naught but the ocean to swim in, his watery view unchanging, unmarred by any land. And so he drew together a great host of his subjects, and together they pulled the ocean floor from its resting place, to form an island. He called it Wutai, meaning First and Last. Upon this land he created life from the oceans, crafting a people small and stealthy, and gifted in the original art of the Magicks. To them he gave the name Ninja, and watched over them as they prospered.

"But in all things there is balance. It must always be so. Opposing Leviathan's water-domain and his new land, there came to be another continent, Centra, formed by the Lightning Bird, Quezacotl. For many years, they ruled in peace, Leviathan with Wutai and Quezacotl with Centra. They balanced one another, and there was peace.

"But a darkness was brewing within the light of Quezacotl's heart. He hid it well, but Leviathan eventually noticed. A great battle erupted, water against lightning and Ninja against the swordsmen of Centra. Neither side could gain an advantage, their balance against one another too even. It was during a break in the fighting, when each power rested, gasping for breath, that the First Powers were forged. Leviathan, realizing that the fighting would destroy everything if it was not finished quickly, left his watery haven and took to the heavens, seeking out the original Creators, those who had forged him from the strength of the ocean and its tides. Quezacotl, seeing Leviathan's departure to Heaven, descended into the depths of Hell, to seek the opposing Power. When Leviathan returned, he shone with the Power of Light, bright and blessed and burning with its glory and goodness. Yet when Quezacotl surfaced, he too bore a new Power, the Black power of darkness and hatred and despair. The fighting resumed, even more furious than before.

"Yet Leviathan had the upper hand, for the Power of Light embodies all elements—water, earth, wind, lightning and fire. The Black power knows only lightning and fire, the core elements of destruction, and it was soon overpowered by the Light. Quezacotl was defeated and banished to the Underworld, taking the Black Power with him. There, in the fires of Hell, the corruption of his heart consumed him. Leviathan and his people were victorious, and they set about rebuilding the world, forging peace with the people of Centra.

"But what of the Powers? The Black Power was said to have been locked away in Hell with Quezacotl and his hatred. The Power of Light was locked away as well, in the tallest level of a great tower in Wutai, so that it would always have contact with the Heavens from which it was born. At the First War's conclusion, it was said that the Powers should never be used again, so that peace would be promoted between all people, both Good and Evil."

Godo paused to take a breath, and sip some more of his tea.

"What was spread as legend for centuries among the people of Wutai was known to be truth among its ruling Clans. Perhaps the First War did not really take place, but the Power of Light existed, burning in the top-most floor of the Pagoda. Yet we had sworn not to use it, and we held to that oath, even during our war with Shin-Ra. But now…" he trailed off, shaking his greyed head.

Reno shifted, one crimson eyebrow quirked in obvious skepticism. "So… Lemme get this straight, yo. Lemme just see if I'm understanding where this is all going. These mystical powers are real… and Draknor has somehow gone to the depths of Hell, and gotten this… Black Power. He burned down Wutai so that the Power of Light couldn't be used when he tries to become a god and take over the world."

Godo nodded. "That's correct."

"So… what is Yuffie's role in all of this?" Tifa asked hesitantly.

Again, he looked at me across the table and there was so much emotion scrawled across his face that I couldn't even begin to try and decipher it. A giant, leaden Tonberry took up sudden residence in my stomach and started gnawing on my innards, much to my dismay. "When the Power was sealed in the Pagoda, Izayoi, the High Priestess and Lady of Wutai at the time, took it upon herself to safeguard it even further. Half the power was locked away, while the other half she took into herself, binding it into her blood and soul. When she died, the power passed to her daughter, Sasame. As the bloodline continued over the decades and centuries, the Power continued to manifest itself in each female heir to the throne. Meaning that Yuffie—"

But I had heard enough. The Tonberry had killed itself on my stomach acid and was now a dead weight, tugging my stomach down somewhere near my pinkie toes.

My chair scraped back with a wincing crunch as I stood and strode purposefully from the room. I didn't even dare to glance back at anyone; I just needed to get the _hell_ out of there. I was not about to sit there and listen to my dear old dad tell me that there was some crazy, mystic, mumbo-jumbo flowing through me, and that I was destined to save the world from some creepy scientist dude who happened to have a god-complex just short of Sephiroth's. And that he never felt the need to inform me of this tiny tidbit of information, until it was too late and I was needed to become some magical High Priestess of Light and All Things Good before said crazy scientist ended the world as we knew it in cold blood.

Because, honestly? I'm not the High Priestess, saintly, martyr type. That was Aeris's job, Gawd rest her soul. And me? I'm no Aeris. I'm just plain old, Yuffie Kisaragi, who cackles like a demented chocobo, is clumsy unless flipping around with a shuriken, and drools when sleeping or faced with Vinnie's leather-clad tush.

I'm pretty sure holier-than-thou High Priestesses aren't supposed to drool.

And also: generally when you've got some mystical power and a destiny bigger than Teef's cleavage, it's good to know about it _before_ you're a fully-fledged adult. Not that I actually _act_ like an adult most of the time, but hey, I've got the twenty-two years of life under my belt to prove it. I mean, Gawd, I felt like Godo had just told me I was adopted and that my actual parents were like a retard chocobo and an evil tonberry of doom or something…. Not that there's any other kind of tonberry, mind you.

In short, it was a lot to process. Which meant me standing outside in the drizzling rain, thinking _'you've got to be fucking _kidding_ me'_ over and over and over again. But hey, it was better than having yet another freak out slash meltdown in front of everyone, right? Besides, I like the rain. Not for any stupid reason like, _'so no one can tell I'm crying wahblahwahwahwah.' _I mean, come on! People can still totally tell that you're crying even if you're standing in the rain! Hello? Your face gets all blotchy and snotty and you come down with a major case of the sniffles. How are gonna explain that, sweetcakes? "Oh, sorry, I'm just allergic to the rain; it makes me come down with the blotch. BUT I'M NOT CRYING, I PROMISE!" I mean, seriously.

Nah, I like the rain 'cause it's all cleansing and whatnot, even when Aeris the Great Goddess Earth-mother isn't putting her essence in it and healing everyone of Geostigma. Not that Aeris actually was a goddess or anything, but I figure she came pretty damn close. Supposedly Leviathan always said that rain was a symbol of rebirth, what with water evaporating into the atmosphere and then being reborn as it falls to the ground again. Kinda like the circle of life, only all watery 'cause that's just how we Wutaiians do.

It was a warm rain, I remember. A spring rain. It soaked into my clothes and plastered my hair to my face and stung as it dripped into my eyes and I wanted to just soak it all up like a sponge and then drown myself in it so only my pruney corpse would be left behind.

For a while, it was just me and the steady drumming of rain on the pavement, like fingers tapping on my skull trying to chase out everything negative and twisted and confused that I was feeling at that second. Trying to chase them out, and failing miserably. There was no way in hell that I was ready to face Godo at that point. So when the bar's front door opened, and Nanaki stepped out, I was pretty damn relieved. Like, more relieved than a PMSing bitch who'd finally gotten her hands on some Midol.

"'Sup, Nanaki?" I asked as he padded over to me, tail tucked carefully under the slight cover of the building and out of the rain.

"They're worried about you inside."

I looked out at the rain, staring as hard as I could at anything other than the creature beside me. "I'm good."

"You're not." _That _got my attention, and I quirked an eyebrow at him in question. "I know what it's like," he continued, "to find out that a piece of you is a lie. Or that a piece of you has been omitted, in this case."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes. Do you remember our first trip to Cosmo Canyon? When I decided to continue on with AVALANCHE?"

"Of course! You and Cloud and Teef went into that cave thing, and Aeris and I were bored to _death_, so we went through all of Cloud's stuff trying to find his hair gel. She just wanted to know what product he used, but I was gonna replace it with something funny. And probably total grossness, too. And we found the weirdest stuff, too! Did you know he was carrying around this nice ass dress and a wig_ and _women's lingerie with us the entire—"

"Yuffie."

I ducked my head sheepishly. "Uh… sorry, Nanaki. I'm guessing something super important happened with you guys?"

"I had grown up thinking my father to be a coward who had abandoned my mother and my tribe when they needed him most. When we went into that cave, I learned that he really fought to the death to protect them, even after he had been turned to stone by the enemy's arrows. But… I had spent my life hating him. That hatred was so much a part of me that I could hardly process anything when I found out that it wasn't justified. It was good to know that my father wasn't a coward, didn't abandon or betray anyone… but it was still a challenge to accept it."

There was a long silence between us, broken only by the splattering rain and the occasional, far-off crash of thunder.

Finally, I sighed. "So what's the moral of the story?"

He gently bumped my thigh with his furry shoulder. "That this power, whatever it is, it's a part of you, even if you didn't know you had it until now. I had to unlearn a part of me… you just have to discover this new part of you."

I glanced down at him, scuffing my foot along the pavement. "Seriously, Nanaki? How come you're so smart? You're supposed to be, like… the equivalent of my age, and I always feel like a big piece of dumb around you."

He grinned, showing lots and lots of teeth. If I hadn't been so used to him, I probably would've run away to the nearest animal control center, screaming about the rabid dog-cat that was after me.

"You're not dumb, Yuffie. My grandpa just taught me well."

I laughed, but there wasn't any humor in it…and it may have been a little hysterical on top of that. "Well, obviously my old man didn't teach me anything. At least, not anything useful in this situation. Plus everything burned down with Wutai, which means I don't even have any way of learning how to find or use or _whatever_ with this stupid power." I frowned. This wasn't going to be anything like using materia, which came with the simple pleasure that it was _materia_. And as we all know, materia equals all things beautiful and awesome and fan-freaking-tastic.

"Well, it's been suggested that you come back to Cosmo Canyon with me and take a look at the library there. I can't guarantee that you'll find anything useful, but it seems like the best option as of right now."

Shaking soaking bangs out of my eyes, I straightened from my slump against the wall. "Well, better than standing in the rain moping, I guess. When are we leaving?"

"As soon as you're ready. Vincent's offered to accompany us as well. Reno made a few rude insinuations."

"Nanaki… can you remind me why we ever stopped trying to kill him?"

.xxx.

After quickly throwing my few belongings into a bag, it was time to face my old man. I found him sitting quietly in one of the other spare bedrooms upstairs, looking out the window towards the east. I came to stand next to him, arms crossed and tense and twitchy.

"You should've told me, ya know."

"I know."

"It really sucks to have this all sprung on me all of a sudden, ya know."

"I know."

"…Sometimes… you're a real shit dad, ya know."

"I know."

"I still love you, though."

He didn't seem to have a response to that, other than to reach out and squeeze my hand, before we each retreated back into our respective bubbles. There were no more apologies, no more sorrys, no more nothing. We were back to our stubborn, contrary, typical relationship. And that was that.

Once I left Godo, I immediately found myself faced with a teary-eyed Tifa, looking to say goodbye.

"Damn, Teef! Are the hormones getting to you already?" I snickered as she pulled me into a tight hug.

"Oh, shut up," she sniffled, wiping her eyes. "You're the closest thing I have to a sister; you should be used to me caring by this point."

"Aww, Tifa… I'll be back before you know it…probably. But Nanaki does have like a crap-ton of books there, so really I may die of old age before we find any info that we can use." I shuddered a little bit at the thought of being shut up inside a musty old library, growing old and stupid over piles of dusty, crackling books. But then I thought of being shut up in said musty old library with Vinnie, and things started to look a little brighter. Plus, I wanted to ask him about that whole potential dream-connection thing. I was kinda nervous to bring it up though, because either A: he would have no idea what I was talking about or B: he would. If it was the first one, it meant that I was most definitely insane. As in clinically, needing to be locked away in a room with padded walls, etc., etc. If it was the second option then… well… that required a whole lot more thought.

In the meantime, though, I simply finished my goodbye with Teef and everyone else (Barrett shouted a lot, Cloud messed with my hair in the obnoxious surrogate-big-brother way he has, Reeve nodded with a small smile, and Reno kept giving me _really_ subtle eyebrow wiggles in Vincent's direction. And when I say really subtle, I mean not at all), and then hopped on the _Shera_ with Nanaki, Vincent and Cid at the helm. Or wheel. Or buttons. Or whatever he uses to pilot the damn thing.

Anyhoo, someone must've slipped me a tranquilizer, because the next thing I knew, I was slumped in a corner, half-asleep and drooling and so _not_ bothered by the motion of the airship. And then I was being dragged unsteadily off said airship, saying a slurred goodbye to Cid and taken promptly to a nice hotel room in Cosmo Canyon to sleep off the rest of the meds.

My dreams were fuzzy and weird, all Technicolor and jarring and filled with stupid high priestesses and stupider crazy scientists and way too much twisted shenanigans for me to even begin to unravel. Of course, my dreams were a whole lot more interesting than what was waiting for me when I woke up.

First of all, Nanaki's library really is huge. And totally unorganized, which is surprising seeing as he's all like… serious and anal and wound-up. I love him though. But I detest his library.

Going through those books was more tedious than watching Aeris take five hours to give herself a perfect mani-pedi. And it _literally_ took her five hours. That's pretty damn tedious in my book. Of course, my nails are so short and gross that giving them any sort of special treatment would just be a waste of life and nail polish, but I digress. All in all, I was turning into a pile of Yuffie-goo, forged in the fires of lamesauce and smelted with an extra dose of boredom. And we weren't even making any progress, which was the worst of it.

…I think I even noticed Vince getting twitchy with annoyance, which usually means bad things for the people nearest to him at said time of twitchiness. And when I say bad things, I mean lots and lots of bullet holes.

I was getting worried, too, I'll admit it. I mean, it's one thing to find out that you've got these hidden powers that are just chilling inside of you. That on its own would've been a fine discovery to make. But it is a completely other chocobo race when the power that you have and have no idea how to use is probably the only thing that can stop the imminent apocalypse via psycho-sociopath scientist jerk-wad. What if I couldn't figure out how to use the power? What if I could, but it wasn't enough anyway? What if the entire world ended and it was all my damn fault?

There were some awful things I could sit back gleefully and watch happen (mainly Barrett prancing around in that sailor suit), but the world ending was not one of them.

Which is probably why I was so frustrated when, a week later, I still knew _nothing_ about this thing of light and goodness that was supposed to be within me. I was also a bit peeved that a lot of Nanaki's history books fingered Wutai as the instigator, or at least main problem, in the Wutai-Shin-Ra war. _So _not true.

It was also why I was absolutely ecstatic to receive a call from Tifa, telling the three of us to get our behinds back to Edge _immediately_. Reeve had managed to dig up some source who had lots of good, juicy information and help for me, and we were needed back there, pronto, in order to make big official discussions.

I was so excited to be getting out of there and hopefully moving towards something that could actually be of some use, that I point-blank refused any tranquilizers on the flight back. I wanted to be lucid as soon as I got there, and I would be damned if airsickness and drugs would keep me from my goals! Excessive drug use is bad for you anyway, kiddies. Listen to your Auntie Yuffie.

Still, that meant that I spent the flight crouched behind a few crates, clutching my stomach like an old man with ulcers and moaning something fierce. Vinnie came to check on me a few times, but he never stayed long. I think he was worried about me puking all over his nice, shiny, Turk-shoes. And, to be honest, I don't really blame him. Still, my airsickness and his absences meant that I didn't really have a chance to ask him about our dream-encounter. And, Gawd, if that doesn't make it sound dirtier than it really was.

When we finally, _finally_ reached Edge, I was feeling mighty chipper, especially for someone who had lost their entire stomach contents not thirty minutes before. I skipped ahead of the guys and sashayed my way up to the front door of the Seventh Heaven, veins and muscles and _soul_ thrumming with excitement at the prospect of some Leviathan-blessed answers.

Flinging open the door, I strode in with the biggest grin that I could possibly muster slathered all over my face. Only to falter and gape open mouthed at what was waiting for me inside.

All I could spit out was, "What the _hell_ is he doing here?"

My confusion, rage and general what-the-fuck were all completely justified. Because sitting in front of me, surrounded by my friends, was none other than Rufus Shin-Ra.

.xxx.

AN: Once again, I'm alive! And seeing as it is finally summer, I will finally be able to update this baby on a more regular basis. But first: my excuses. Number 1—I was in the hospital for most of spring break (which was when I was planning on writing ahead for this….that failed.) Number 2—after spring break I had to do that whole school thing. Education is so inconvenient sometimes. And Number 3—As soon as I got on summer break, I got my wisdom teeth out and really didn't feel like doing much of anything other than lying on a couch and drooling.

As a note on the story, I can feel some of you getting twitchy in the pants area. And no, not about Rufus, but about this whole mystical powers thing. I promise, I'm going to try to keep it as far from cliché as possible, and I also promise that I'm not going to make it easy on Yuffie to work this out. I'm not turning her into a Mary-Sue, so no worries. I wouldn't do that to y'all after seven chapters.

But on to more important things. I am now back and planning on working on this A LOT. And I also want to apologize to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, because I'm pretty sure I didn't respond to anyone… and for that, I'm so sorry. As of this chapter, I'll be back to responding to all the signed reviews I get. So, without further ado, HUGE thanks go out to everyone who reviewed last time: **MadBlossomingPrincess, JingYee, often indecisive, Alamorn, Ashes, serenbach, warrior of six blades, Tiggerz16, Missyluv, Le Requiem (oh hai gurl hai!), and LiveLifeLikeNeverBefore! **If any of you are still out there, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue reviewing so I can shower you with thanks and plushies and cookies and love. And stuff.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Yadda, yadda, yadda… Squeenix owns VII, yadda, yadda….

AN: Enter serious!Yuffie. Also, this is my favorite chapter, to date.

.xxx.

I don't remember much of Wutai before the war with Shin-Ra. I was young, and too much has happened since then. But I was raised on the stories of Wutai's former glory, raised with the lessons that materia meant power, and Shin-Ra had taken that power away. Throughout my childhood and early adolescence, Shin-Ra was a synonym for murder, for shame, for destruction. Shin-Ra meant kill on sight. Shin-Ra meant _enemy_.

And Rufus had the nerve to greet me with a fucking smile on his face.

"Miss Kisaragi. It's a pleasure to see you."

You know that phrase "if looks could kill"? Well. If it were really possible to kill someone with a look, Rufus would have been deader than Barret's fashion sense. Preferably by drowning after I sliced him up all over and dropped him into a pool of lemon juice with hundred-pound weights tied to his ankles.

Since that wasn't an option, I was forced to greet him with all the grace and charisma a princess should possess.

"Fuck off."

The bastard (again) had nerve, this time to _tsk_ at me. "Is that how you should be speaking to the man who has all the information you need?" His smile was wide and shark-like as he regarded me with calculating eyes.

I scoffed. "It's how I _feel _like talking to the man who destroyed my country the first time around." I paused, putting on my best thinking face before adding, "Douchebag."

"I see you're still lovely as ever, Princess."

I'm pretty sure I snarled, before hurling my next words at him. "What can I say? Something about coldblooded murderers just brings it out of me."

He shook his head at me, feigning pity. "It's quite the shame that your father never taught you about the finer points of peaceful negotiations, Miss Kisaragi. You could learn a thing or two about being polite."

"I've found that shoving bamboo splints under people's fingernails works better than being polite, thanks. Want a demonstration?" My smile was sweet and innocent, and I batted my eyelashes for added effect.

"And you call me coldblooded?"

"There's a difference between violence for a purpose and violence for the fun of it, Shin-Ra. You and your father and your gawd-damned company never learned that difference."

"On the contrary. Shin-Ra always had a purpose."

"Bull. Greed isn't a purpose, you piece of shit. It's selfish and self-serving and you deserve to _burn_." I spat the words at him, twenty-two years of hatred boiling over with no violent outlet in sight.

Yet even as I despised him with every single particle of my being, something inside me was humming, like I was a guitar that'd had all my strings plucked by massive, macho hands. And even though I was using words like 'douchebag' and 'piece of shit,' I could feel something within me shifting. Something older, wiser, more mature. Like a piece of my Mama, with all her strength and wisdom, was stepping up to spar with the slimeball in front of me. I could feel my bones trembling like the filament in a light bulb, and everything else had faded away, until all that was left was me and Rufus, squaring off in a war of words. My friends dwindled into the background, the walls surrounding me had evaporated into thin air, and even the floor beneath my feet was gone, disappearing into the recesses of my consciousness. The blue eyes and blonde hair and charming, practiced, politician's smile were all I could see. The low, quiet, controlled voice was all I could hear. And all I could feel was pure, undiluted fury, lighting me on fire from the inside-out.

His eyes seemed to zero in on me, and I was going up in blue flames. "Think what you like, but in this situation… you still need me." Something in my stomach clenched _tight_, my hand flying to my back for Conformer and—

A hand on my shoulder jerked me back to reality. The bar came crashing back into focus around me, and I wavered a little on my feet. "Yuffie." Vincent's voice was comforting, gravelly and familiar, and I sent a prayer up to Leviathan that he had broken whatever crazy, mumbo-jumbo had been going on. At some point he and Cid and Nanaki must've come in behind me, but I couldn't seem to remember when. I briefly met Vince's eyes, before glaring back at Rufus again. He still had that stupid smile on his stupid face.

In the tense silence that followed, Reeve coughed awkwardly like the cheese-ball he is. "Well, Yuffie… as you may have figured out by this point, Rufus is our newest source into this… Draknor issue. He's eager to help you."

"Eager my ass," I muttered, before looking around the room. Reeve, Tifa, Cloud, Barret, and the Turks we're spread about the bar. "And you've all…what? Just been chatting him up like he's one of the gang? Like he's a fucking… _friend_ or something?" Reno opened his big, stupid mouth, probably to make some idiotic comment, but I just pointed at him. "You four don't count, so shut it Turkey." He shut it.

There was a lot of shifting all around the room, and the whole vibe was so uncomfortable that I was getting majorly itchy. And twitchy. And suddenly I was brought back to the moment right before I beat Godo at the top of the Pagoda. Right before I threw my final blow, this cold calm washed over me and everything had snapped into ultra-clear focus. At that second, I think I had been ready to kill my own father.

As I gazed around the room at each familiar face, the cold, placid feeling took over yet again.

"You aren't seriously telling me," I began, my voice a low hiss, "that you've all _forgiven_ him, are you? That you've forgiven Shin-Ra for what they took from all of you? What they did to this Planet? You cannot _possibly_ be saying that."

Silence reigned again in the bar, and I felt like strangling something. Possibly myself.

"You know, holding a grudge is a waste of energy—" Rufus began.

"Didn't I tell you to fuck off?" I shot back, adding a few more degrees of hatred to the glare I was shooting in his direction.

Finally, Tifa stood, walking slowly over to me. She put both her hands on my shoulders, and for a second, I absolutely _loathed_ her for her maturity and grace. "We've forgiven, Yuffie… but we haven't forgotten. We'll _never_ forget."

"I haven't forgiven anything," Cloud chimed in, his voice lazy and monotone, "I'm not really interested."

Everyone but me, Vincent and Rufus laughed at his pathetic attempt to break the tension. Tifa squeezed my shoulders, bringing my gaze back to hers. "Besides, forgiveness aside, we _do _kind of need his help for this one."

I shrugged her off, not wanting anyone to be touching me just then. "Why? What sort of information does he have?"

And suddenly all the attention was off of me and my little shit-fit, and back onto Rufus. Sheepish was a funny look on him, and I wanted to laugh in his face… so I did. Internally, mind you, but I still felt better.

"While the Shin-Ra HQ suffered massive damage during the Weapon's attack before Meteor, much of the library was able to be salvaged. I happened to be going through it the other day, and I came across some documents that my company… liberated during the war with Wutai."

I burst out laughing, in that sick, humorless way. I laughed until my stomach was convulsing and I felt like I was going to blow chunks all over my own boots and I was pretty sure my spleen had ruptured. "Oh, _gawd._ You've got to be shitting me right now. Mr. Do-Gooder wants to come in and save the day with documents he _stole_ from Wutai during the war. This is what it's come down to." I rolled my eyes so far up I thought they might get stuck there, and looked at where the sky would be if the bar's ceiling wasn't in the way. "Leviathan. You seriously owe me when I get to the afterlife. You owe me, like more than anyone has ever owed me in their entire life."

Rufus nodded with all the dignity of a good man. A man who hadn't almost destroyed the world. I wanted to punch him in his dumb, nodding face. "It's true the documents were pilfered during the war, although it's not an act that I was involved with. Yet the fact remains, Miss Kisaragi, that the documents are currently in my possession and are too delicate to be moved. If you want to read them, you're going to have to cooperate with me."

I laughed again, hysteria edging in. "Oh gawd, oh gawd, I'm sorry, this is just too fucked up! There's gotta be a—" And then I realized. Somewhere in the back of my Yuffie-brain, in the tiny, dusty place where common-sense and critical thinking are kept, a few of the pieces began to fall into place. "There is. There's a catch. There's something in this for you, you slimy piece of chocobo dung, and I want to know what it is!" I marched right up to him, all five-foot-two-inches to his six-foot-whatever, and got right up in his face, the toes of my boots only an inch away from his stupid, shiny shoes. "I know people like you; I've watched Godo deal with them for years. You're holding something back. And you're going to tell me what it is."

My fists were balled and itching to fly, and his brow furrowed as he stared at me. "If we could perhaps speak in private…?" It surprised me, him giving me an opening to say no.

I didn't turn from him. "Everyone, out." Not that I was going to take his opening. I was getting my answers, one way or another.

I don't even know where everyone scampered off to, but they got out of the main room right quick. All but one.

"Private generally means only those invited are privy to it." Rufus said pointedly over my left shoulder. I half-turned to see Vinnie standing right where he had been since arriving.

There was a warning in his expression, but I just smiled halfheartedly, flapping a hand at him. "It's alright, Vince. This won't take long."

With a reluctant look at the two of us, Vincent headed upstairs to group up with everyone else, I guess. This time, it really was just me and Rufus, alone, and all the tension was back tenfold, winding me tighter than Reeve's grandfather Moogle clock.

Rufus rolled his shoulders and made to sit down. But just before his butt touched the seat, I kicked the chair out from underneath him. There's something about watching the head of the company who turned your country into a tourist trap go sprawling across the floor in an undignified heap that just makes your heart feel all warm and fuzzy. Or at least… that's how I was feeling.

"You're supposed to stand in the presence of a lady." My spine was ramrod straight, and I looked down at him with all the haughtiness I could muster, which, to be honest, was quite a lot. If Rufus want to politick with me, then he obviously had no idea who he was messing with.

With a sigh like he had the world on his shoulders, which he of all people should not be sighing, Rufus picked himself up, dusted himself off and stared at me. _Hard._

"There are many things I'd like to discuss with you."

"Yeah? Well, all I want to talk about are these documents and whatever it is you're hiding from everyone else. So get to spilling." I wasn't in the mood for small talk.

He didn't say anything for a moment, still regarding me, icy and curious. "I don't pretend to be a good man, Yuffie. But what is so different about cooperating with me as opposed to cooperating with a Turk? Or Reeve, who used to work for Shin-Ra? We were all involved under the same umbrella, before the company fell."

"There's a huge difference between giving orders and taking them." I said evenly. Duty and Honor are two familiar concepts in the life of a ninja. A ninja may shame their family by giving corrupt orders to others, but never by following those orders when they come from a source of power. "Besides, Reno and Rude and Tseng and Elena… they know what mercy is. They've shown it, even in the line of duty. You? You wouldn't know mercy if someone shoved it up your ass."

Rufus chuckled, sinking into another chair that I hadn't kicked over in my oh-so mature temper tantrum. This time I not only let him, but I followed suit, sitting across the table from him, suddenly very weary.

"Explain something to me then, if you would. You speak to me like you hate me more than anyone or anything in the world. Yet you had the chance to kill me once, and you didn't take it. _You _showed _me _mercy."

I kind of wanted to throw up at the reminder. It was back when Vince and I were helping evacuate Midgar while Cloud and Co. took on Sephiroth in the Northern Crater. It was maybe ten minutes before we were gonna pack it up and call it a night, when I happened to catch a glimpse of something white and fluttery out of the corner of my eye. Being the easily-distracted and uncontrollably curious person that I am, I scampered my way over to said white and fluttery object. At first, I thought it was just some cloth trapped under a big pile of rubble, but something started gnawing at my gut when I turned to walk away. And believe me, when you've got stuff randomly chomping on your innards, you start to think twice about whatever decision it is you're about to make. So I turned back to the heap of debris, and started digging.

When I realized it was a white trench coat, I probably should've said "fuck it" and left right then. I hadn't actually been with AVALANCHE when they faced off with Rufus in person, but when a family destroys your country, you learn a lot about them. Their habits, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, their consistencies. The white attire was known all around as Rufus's signature; a fact almost as widespread and well-known as the rumor that he'd never bled or cried in his life. That, and I'd also seen him on the news plenty of times, looking arrogant and cruel.

Either I had forgotten this fact about his clothing, or I was unconsciously caught up in some extremely generous, kind-hearted mood… 'cause I just kept digging. I found his foot first, and eventually dragged his heavy ass out from under the wreckage or whatever building had collapsed around him.

When I finally got him completely out and took a good look at his face, I was horrified. The entirety of his face was pretty messed up, like someone had taken a frying pan and beat the shit out of it (and boy, did I want to shake that metaphorical person's hand… and then steal their frying pan and have another go at him), but I could still recognize him. Everything about his face looks sharp and dangerous. His nose is knife-straight, his chin pointy and severe. Even his lips look harsh, etched in bold lines across his face.

Rufus Shin-Ra does not look like a gentle man, especially not then. For a few long seconds as I stared at him in disbelief at the fact that _I _had found _him_, all I could think was that he looked cruel and cold and deadly. Even with his face all beat to hell. And in those long seconds, I debated between doing the _good_ thing… and getting revenge.

It would've been easy to snap his neck or slit his throat or put him back under the rubble and just _leave_. It would've been easy, and maybe I could've done it without feeling guilty. But then the bastard had to go and open his eyes and look right into mine. His eyes are sharp too, like blue lasers that can slice through you in an instant, demolishing any walls or pretensions you have up without a second thought. Nothing about him is soft. Nothing about him is nice.

Here's the thing, though. I've fought and killed people before, for a variety of reasons. Generally good reasons, for the record. That doesn't mean it's easy. Sometimes it is, depending on what the person did to deserve death. But usually, it's not a pleasant thing.

And it's especially hard to kill someone when they're staring you right in the face. No matter who they are, no matter what they've done… when you have to look them in the eye as you drag a blade across their throat… it's not simple. It's not easy. And it sure as hell isn't _fun_.

I think he was too torn up from whatever had kicked his ass to speak, and I was too much in shock to do anything other than gape stupidly, and eventually I realized that as tough as I wanted to be, as tough as I made myself seem to other people, I wasn't going to be able to murder the man in front of me. No matter how much my heart was screaming at me to _just do it he murdered your country he murdered your people he took your dignity and honor and power you poor excuse for a ninja __**do it.**_

Instead, I called over a medic with a gurney, watched as they loaded Rufus up and flew him off to some major get medical attention. After that, I was, of course, too busy saving Vince's emo ass from falling off a huge collapsing tower of doom and impending death to think much about what I had or hadn't done.

I hadn't seen Rufus since that day. I had tried my hardest to forget about it, shoving the memories into the back of my brain where I keep gems such as the memory of accidentally walking in on my butt-naked father when I was seven, or the time Reeve and I drunkenly made out on a dare. Not that it was _bad_ per se but… It's Reeve. He's got a fucking goatee, for gawd's sake. And a weird obsession with mechanical cats. Mechanical cats that are really fucking annoying. You can see why I banished the memory.

Anyway, the point is… I didn't appreciate Rufus bringing up the fact that I had saved his sorry ass, even though any other Wutaiian would've bled him like a stuck pig and danced a jaunty jig on his drained carcass.

"I should've killed you when I had the chance, back then. I should've slit your throat and watched you die. I should've watched the life leave your eyes and I should have laughed as it did. It would've done the world a huge favor, taking you out of it."

"Not quite…" He was quiet, as if weighing his options, before he started in again. "Yuffie, who do you think made it possible for Reeve to take over? Who do you think made the WRO's existence possible?"

My brain froze for all of .23 seconds before it processed what he was trying to say.

"Oh no! You are _so_ not going to try to take credit for that. You stepped down and Reeve did it all, you jackass, so don't even—"

"I stepped down in name only. The fact remains that all WRO and Calm Incentive funding came from me. Reeve makes all the decisions, yes… but he runs them by me first. You can ask him and he'll confirm it for you. The Turks may report to him now, but he reports to me. So, really… I've been helping you all along."

I wanted to yell at him, to call him a liar. Instead, I leaned back in my chair and scrutinized him as intensely as I possibly could. His expression was earnest and I hated him for it. "Why? So you can get some false sense of redemption? So you can pretend to be a good human being again? So you can feel like you're innocent? I'm sorry, Shin-Ra, but that's a load of tonberry crap."

He shook his head, eyes never leaving mine. "We've already established that I'm not a good man. I've been responsible, indirectly and directly, for a lot of pain and suffering in this world. The people needed a new leader after everything my family's company did. Reeve _is_ a good man. Is it really so hard to believe that I would feel remorse, and would want to pave an easier path for him?"

I choked out one short bark of laughter. "Quite frankly? Yes. It is hard to believe. So maybe you helped out Edge. Bravo. What about undoing the damage you did to Wutai? Speaking of which, stop trying to sidetrack me. Tell me about these documents."

He stared at me, a hint of disbelief marring his calm face. "Yuffie. You can't possibly expect me to believe that Wutai would have accepted any help or support from Shin-Ra following Meteor."

"Of course not. But it would've gone a long way towards helping me see you as less of a bastard."

He shrugged. "Pity I didn't go against my better judgment, then."

We both fell silent, collecting our thoughts. I had a lot to sift through, to reconcile in my mind.

"So… that's it? That's your big secret? You're the benefactor behind Reeve and his campaign? You're the one who's been supporting him since Meteor?"

"Indeed."

"And you didn't want everyone else to know because…?"

"Because the fewer people who know, the better. The people have faith in Reeve. Finding out that he's so closely involved with a man of my history would just shake that faith. The world would crumble again."

"The world may very well crumble anyway if we don't start talking about Draknor and the information you have." I pointed out. Something in the back of my mind was still ringing, telling me that Rufus was definitely not being one hundred percent honest. He was still hiding something, but I was going to let it go for the time being.

I had more important things to worry about than the secrets of Rufus Shin-Ra.

"About ten days ago, I came across some scrolls in the library. They looked rather out of place, so naturally I was intrigued. At first, they didn't mean anything to me—they're written in an old Wutaiian script and I couldn't read them. Then Reeve called, asking if I knew anything about Draknor, or anything relating to the beginning of Wutai's history. He told me about the creation legend and the two powers your father spoke of. I told him I'd get back to him and immediately called up the best translator I have at my disposal. Everything you need to know should be in those scrolls, from what he was able to translate." He paused, looking away from me for the first time since I'd arrived at the bar. "I was serious though, when I said the scrolls are too delicate to be moved. You will have to come to my estate to view them."

The warning in my head was jangling again, shouting about an ulterior motive. "I don't trust you," I slowly informed the man across the table from me, "I still think you're hiding something. But I am, probably very stupidly, going to make the decision to listen to you. As soon as I've had time to discuss with my friends, we'll be heading back to your… estate."

"I'm glad to see you're willing to cooperate. I really don't want to see this world fall into the darkness of a crazed scientist."

I smiled thinly. "Then what the hell was up with Hojo?"

Rufus smiled back and, for once, it lacked its predatory quality. "A slight flub on my father's part, unfortunately. He thought Hojo was a genius."

A thought struck me, out of nowhere. "Are you… expecting me to, like… stay at your place until this all gets figured out?"

"I had assumed so, yes. Unless one read-through of the documents unlocks whatever it is you need, which I highly doubt. And, as I said before, the papers can't be moved. They're too fragile."

I squinted at him, animosity beginning to creep back into the air between us. "I swear to Leviathan, if this is some elaborate assassination scheme, I am _so_ going to castrate you in your sleep."

"It would be a shame to waste your loveliness by assassinating you, Miss Kisaragi."

"Oh, _gawd_. Political flirting. You really don't know how Wutai operates, do you?"

He shrugged again. "I wasn't the one doing the negotiations before and during the war. I was actually very far removed from my father's politics at the time." A wry smile twisted his mouth, like he was laughing at an inside joke. One made at my expense.

"Let me put it this way. I'm not some blonde floozy in a red dress who's gonna get into a bitch fight on top of a cannon. In Wutai, sleeping around doesn't help you climb any professional ladders, it just gives the reputation of a whore. I may not be the most charismatic heir to ever grace the Kisaragi clan, but you will sure as _hell_ treat me like an intelligent human being. Not like someone who can be bought with pretty words and compliments. And if you try to flirt with me again, I'll gut you so fast your head'll spin."

Oh gawd, if only I had known then. But I didn't know, I _couldn't _have known.

Rufus nodded, his eyes still glinting at some humor that I wasn't privy to. Still, I was gonna drive my point home. I was not going to blindly agree to everything he suggested.

"One last thing. I've got a condition for you."

"And what would that be?"

"I'm not going to your estate by myself. Vincent's coming with me, if he wants to." _He'll want to,_ snickered a voice in the back of my mind. "If you say no, I don't care how fragile the documents are, I will ninja my way into your house and steal them back for Wutai and figure this all out, without your help. And believe me, if there's a place I want to break into… nothing's gonna stop me." I wanted to add, 'not even death,' but that seemed a little overdramatic, even for me.

The blond frowned at me, looking troubled. "Alright…" he said slowly, "I accept your condition. We'll leave whenever you're ready, but don't take all day." With that, he stood and flounced from the bar, trench coat billowing behind him. In reality, he actually strode calmly, and there was no billowing whatsoever, but I had to mock him in some way or another. As soon as he was outside, the tension dissipated, and I felt like I was taking my first real breath in forever.

"Alright, everyone!" I shouted up the stairs, "It's safe to come down now! We didn't kill each other!"

_Yet…_ I thought in frustration.

.xxx.

An hour later I found myself perched on the roof, legs dangling off the edge, trying to collect the tattered shreds of my thoughts. I hadn't been up there for very long, when Cloud came to join me. For a few minutes we just sat in silence, until I (predictably) broke it.

"Hey, Cloud?"

"Mm?"

"Life sure has gotten weird lately."

He chuckled at that. "Yeah… it really has. But we've dealt with weird before."

"You more than any of us."

Silence wrapped around us again. A few clouds drifted lazily across the sky.

"Hey, Cloud?"

"…?"

"Where's Godo? And the small, cute-but-annoying ones, for that matter?"

"They've all gone to stay with Elmyra. Tifa sent Marlene and Denzel off once we knew for sure you were coming back, and things were bound to get crazy. And your dad went a few days ago. I think Tifa's hovering drove him away."

"Oh, like Elmyra's gonna hover less?"

"Well, he needed someone to take care of him. He's still healing. And his options were either, stay with us, go to Rocket Town to see Shera, or head over to Elmyra's."

"I'm surprised he didn't pick Shera, if only for the tea."

"I thought the same thing."

"Hey, Cloud?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you all really forgiven Shin-Ra?"

Cloud sighed, raking a hand through his spikes. "I think… it's a temporary sort of forgiveness. Ya know, putting differences aside for the greater good? At least, for the time being."

"Does… does it make me a bad person that I can't find an ounce of forgiveness in me? Not even a teensy, tiny drop of it?"

"No. It just means… that maybe your hurts go deeper than ours. Maybe your loyalty, too." He smiled ruefully.

"Oh…. Hey, Cloud?"

"Yes, Yuffie?"

"You fought Rufus, right? Before I joined up with you guys?"

"Yeah… once. Right after we rescued Aeris from Shin-Ra Headquarters."

"Is it true the he doesn't bleed?"

Cloud huffed out a small laugh through his nose. "Trust me, Yuffs. The guy _definitely _bleeds."

"I hope I can make him cry. And then take pictures and send them to everyone I know. And get them blown up and displayed on huge billboards all over the world. And get them printed on t-shirts and mugs and flags and sell them."

The blond beside me chuckled again. "I'm sure if anyone can make him cry, it's you, Yuffie. If anything, you can always sing really loudly in the shower. That should do it."

"Oh, go screw a chocobo. Jerk."

After that little chat, though… it really did go on my bucket list. Yuffie's Bucket List; Item #97: Make Rufus Shin-Ra cry. And I was determined to do it before I saved the world from Draknor.

.xxx.

The drive to Rufus's estate was awkward at best. Somehow, Reno had finagled himself into being the one to actually drop me off, leaving him in the driver's seat with me and Vincent in the back. And boy, oh boy, did he turn on the obnoxious, just for me.

"Geez, Princess, I can't believe you're growing up so fast! Do you know how honored I am to be the one chauffeuring you on your first date, yo?"

"Stuff it, Turkey."

"Now remember, you don't wanna give it all up on the first date. Well, unless you're going on a date with me, but that's just 'cause the ladies can't resist me. But we're not talking about me, we're talking about you. And Valentine. Hey, what time is your curfew again? Eleven? Or ten? I'm thinking ten. Are you listening, Valentine? I don't wanna have to kick your ass if you keep my princess out past her bedtime."

As Reno rambled on like the idiot he pretends to be (and sometimes I'm not sure he's actually pretending), I rummaged in the duffel at my feet, looking for a very particular piece of materia. I finally found it, with a silent prayer of thanks to Leviathan, just as Reno reached the apex of his annoyingness.

"And always, _always_ remember to leave room for Jesus, yo!" He exclaimed cheerfully, a split second before my Silence spell hit him.

"Oh thank gawd, it worked!" I groaned, my head flopping into my palms.

"Thank you." Vincent murmured from beside me, speaking for the first time since our car ride of horror had begun.

Pulling my face out of my hands, I looked at him from the corner of my eye. Some awkward was still pervading the air within the car, but I figured (read: hoped) that maybe Vince's social radar was still a bit off after spending thirty years in a coffin, despite the fact that he'd had six years to adjust to normal society again. "You sure you're okay with doing this? I mean… we don't know how long we're gonna be stuck at Rufus's place. It could take me a while to figure this stuff out."

"If you hadn't asked me to accompany you, I would've followed you anyway." Vincent stated quietly.

Up in the front seat, Reno started flapping around like a demented parrot on speed. I kicked his headrest.

"How come?"

"I don't trust Rufus. Also, I agreed to help you. I'm going to see this through to the end with you, no matter what end it might come to."

"Gee, cutting your hair off really didn't make you any more of an optimist, did it?"

I was graced with a tiny, Vincent smile, as I turned to face him fully. "We've beaten the odds at least twice before. Our luck's bound to run out at some point."

Something in me was feeling bold in that moment, so I reached out and took Vinnie's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Well… if it's gonna run out this time around, I'm glad I'll be with you when it does."

"As am I."

As it turned out, our luck did run out right after that comment, due to my Silence spell wearing off Captain Peanut Gallery in the front seat.

"Awwww…. You two are just the _cutest_."

In any other situation, I would've sliced Reno's throat, Godfather-style. But when I found the car pulling up to Rufus's estate, I was too busy trying not to vom all over the back seat from the sudden, sick feeling that settled in the very, very bottom of my stomach.

Something was about to change. I could feel it.

Looking towards Vincent again, I gulped. "You ready for this?"

One nod, and then we were climbing out of the car, heading towards major change.

.xxx.

AN: One thing I forgot to mention last time is that a lot of the Wutai mythology I brought in the last chapter is actually taken from the original concept-design of Wutai, before Square changed it up into the Wutai seen in the actual game. At least, that's what wiki told me. I went into major research mode to make sure I wasn't gonna fuck anything up and look like an idiot ^.^ A lot of the stuff I added that has nothing to do with VII came from FFVIII, such as Quezacotl and Centra. I like me some references.

Also, am I the only one who *didn't* know that Rufus is who they're loading into the helicopter in the opening FMV for Dirge of Cerberus? Because… I didn't know that. Apparently, we're supposed to know it's him based on the white clothing the person in the FMV is wearing. Because Rufus is the only person allowed to wear white in the FFVII-verse. Oi.

Thanks go out to my FABULOUS reviewers who have stuck with me through all my absent-writer shenanigans: **serenbach, realestboo, Anon, LiveLifeLikeNeverBefore (who thankfully reminded me that if the chapter is kicking my ass, maybe it's time to take a break, then come back later and kick *its* ass), often indecisive and myeve123! **Yay fluff! Yay Rufus! Yay reviews!


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Things you recognize! I disclaim them!

AN: In which Bru makes unnecessary references to _everything,_ along with making up for the severe lack of fluff in the previous two chapters. Enjoy!

.xxx.

I think falling in love is weird. I mean, it hasn't happened to me, like, super often or anything, but it's still weird. Back when AVALANCHE was whole (as in: before Aeris died), and when sitting around the campfire had gotten too boring and repetitive, me, Aeris, and Tifa used to hole up in one of the tents and pass around some of those cheesy romance novels that use stupid, flowery language and deal with _really _tough subjects such as a princess falling in love with a pirate after he kidnaps her to hold for ransom, or a duke falling in love with his servant girl and knocking her up even though he's married or whatever. The two of them would read it out loud while I cowered under a blanket, half-embarrassed and half-curious and half thinking 'uh… seriously?'

I'd never been in love before then, hell, the only crush I'd ever had had ended up with him laughing in my face and me feeling like someone had just ripped out my spleen with their bare hands and eaten it right in front of me and left me in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting medical attention so that my wound would get infected and kill me. So, suffice it to say, I had not had good experiences with the whole l-word. And the books that Aeris and Teef subjected me to did not exactly do much to help my understanding, since it seemed like they were all about sexiness and big boobs and sultry stares. If I had to make a list of things I _did not _and _never would_ have, I'm pretty sure those three items would be at the very top of it.

I finally asked Aeris about it one night, as everyone was getting ready to either go to sleep or stand watch.

"Umm… Aeris?" It was about a month after the day that came to be formally known as the Materia Incident, and I was pretty sure I was forgiven at that point since I'd been allowed back in on Girls' Nights.

I remember her smiling at me like she knew what I was about to ask, as I awkwardly shifted around in front of her, all big feet and burning cheeks and gawky, teen naïveté. Aeris was like that. "What is it, Yuffie?"

"I just… kinda… wanted to know… uh… what's love like? Like actually, actually like?"

"How come? Someone on your mind?" She teased, poking my nose, and I swear to _gawd_ I saw her eyes flicker towards Cloud, which was like, so _far_ from where my mind was it wasn't even funny. Sure, Spikes is cute and all, but something about having someone beat the crap out of you with a giant sword the first time you meet them just puts a damper on any crush that might develop.

"No! _No._ I see where you're looking and get your mind away from there, missy!" I flailed around to make my point and she just laughed that tinkling laugh of hers.

But then she stopped laughing and her eyes sort of softened and she got that far-off look where you just knew she was on a whole different plane than the rest of us. "Well, love is different for everyone. For me, love is… flower wagons and grins and the brightest eyes you've ever seen. It's knowing that he would've come back, always, if he could have and that I'll see him again, someday."

By the end of her little spiel, my face was scrunched up tighter than a closed accordion, and I was pretty sure 'what the hell are you on about?' was scrawled across my forehead in big, red, permanent letters.

She just smiled at me again, all pretty and perfect and understanding. "Love is knowing that someone will wait for you, no matter how long it takes for you to get back to them. At least… that's how I see it."

I had never been able to wait for anything in my life, so this mentality didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me at the time. I mean, I had always figured, why wait for something to come to you when you could just go out like the sneakiest of sneaks and take it yourself? When I tried explaining this to Aeris, she just giggled some more and poked my nose again and wouldn't say another word, leaving me more confused than ever.

I went to Tifa the next night, determined to get an answer that made sense. I was always a little more comfortable going to Tifa than Aeris. I loved them both, still do, but Aeris just saw too much. Even with my perfected ninja poker face, she'd see right through it down to the heart of what I really meant. Tifa, while perceptive in her own way, didn't have any magic Ancient seventh-sense or whatever.

"Hey, Teefers?"

"Yes, Yuffers?" She grinned, wide and beautiful, looking up as I poked my head into her tent.

"I already asked Aeris but… her answer didn't make a whole lot of sense. So… can I ask you something?"

"Mm-hmm." She patted the spot next to her on her bedroll and I plopped down.

"What's love like? Not the stupid kind in the books we read, but the real kind?"

She was quiet for a moment, head tilted as she thought.

"Well… I can't tell you what it'll be like for you, since everybody has different experiences with it. But… For me? It's always begun with friendship. And… It's knowing that a person will always come for you, always be there for you, no matter when or how or why."

At this, I'm pretty sure I did some more flailing since, ya know, it's kind of my thing. "But Aeris told me it's when you know someone will always wait for you! Now you're saying it's when someone will always come for you? I… I think I'm too young for this shit. Or it's just too confusing." Tifa tossed her head back and laughed, before pulling me into a half-hug against her side as I grumbled.

"It's both. Sometimes, you need someone to wait for you… and sometimes you need them to help you out. When someone can do both those things, without hesitating and without ever… using it as leverage against you or anything like that… that's love." She paused, giving my shoulders a squeeze. "But really? That's only a tiny part of it. So much of it is all mixed up with feelings and emotions that reasons and descriptions sort of… fade away and become unimportant."

I sighed, hanging my head. "I think I'll stick with the kind that's in our books… where it's all about sex and stuff. That just seems easier."

I think Tifa almost puked she was laughing so hard at that.

Now, you may ask, 'Why, oh why, Great Ninja Master Yuffie, are you regaling us with this odd vignette about your stupidity when it comes to love at this moment in time? We would much rather be hearing about your time at Rufus's place and all that important, saving-the-world stuff.'

Well, just keep your freaking pants on, you big nympho, I'm getting there. And for your information, love plays a very important role in the next few chunks of my story.

But seriously, I mean it about your pants. Stop trying to strip.

.xxx.

The Shin-Ra Estate was exactly how I imagined it would be: huge, ornate, slightly over-the-top, and, above all else, cold-looking on the outside. It was nestled behind thick, brick walls like a fortress fit for a zombie apocalypse, halfway between the city center and the outskirts. I could go on and on and on describing it in every little detail, but that would probably be boring for you, nyeh? So, instead, I'll make it simple. All in all, it reminded me of the castle from that cartoon movie about a beast who's not actually a beast but a guy who was super mean to this lady so she turned him into a beast until he could find someone to love him. And… there was something about a rose, too. I don't remember too well 'cause I hated that movie, but Shake used to make me watch it all the time when I was little and stupid and annoying and she wanted me to go the eff away so she could actually get some training in.

Anyway, that castle from the movie? Could basically be interchangeable with Rufus's estate. And the beast waiting for me inside? Rufus Shin-Ra, in the flesh.

It would've been a whole lot cooler if there'd been a talking candelabra, though.

Anyway, as we got out of the car, Reno swaggered on ahead of us, in theory leading the way although I'm pretty sure we could have figured out where the front door was since it was, ya know, on the front of the freaking house. Or should I say mansion…. Castle…. Thing…. Anyway!

Once inside, we were shown up the grand staircase to our respective bedrooms which happened to be right across the hall from one another. Reno wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. I kicked him in the shin. Everything was normal as a sunrise.

After settling our things (not that we had that many, since it's not like we were on vacation or anything), we got the grand tour, ending with the library. Rufus hadn't made an appearance yet, which was just fine with me. At that point, if I could have gone my entire stay at his estate without seeing his smug face, I would've been just peachy.

As a warning, that's not the way this story goes. Just so you know. I don't want you all yelling and saying I deceived you later on!

Reno pointed out the documents, which were sitting innocently on a big oak table, surrounded by thick, leather chairs and next to a _massive_ window overlooking the grounds. Yes, in the cold, dead city of Edge, Rufus managed to splurge enough to have real _grounds_. With fucking grass and everything. I couldn't fault him for having nature about since everything else in Edge was so stupid and dead, but it seemed a little… excessive. Of course, I was probably just looking for stuff to fault him on so… yeah. I'm honest with my biases, don't judge!

After showing me to my prison, I mean table, Reno sauntered out, probably to go find some maid to bang or something. Or maybe to style his hair. I didn't really care one way or another since the pile of paper sitting in front of me had my head spinning from the sheer volume. With nothing left to do for the time being and time a-wasting as I stood and gaped like an idiot, I settled in to start reading, exhausted already.

And _that_, my dear friends, is how I found myself pouring over centuries-old documents, hours later, with a major crick in my neck along with the headache that had decided to wrap around my brain like a giant turban of pain and despair. Said turban of all things awful also decided that it would be a _way_ good idea to squeeze around my gray matter every few seconds for added pain and annoyance. It sorta reminded me of this book I read where this evil guy had this other evil guy living under his turban and this little kid (who was like a wizard or some shit) had to, like, defeat them or something 'cause they killed his parents.

I dunno, I had a way short attention span when I tried reading it, so maybe I'm getting some parts of it all wrong.

The point was, I was not having happy fun research times. It's not exactly a walk in the park to translate Old Wutaiian into New Wutaiian, plus they have this whole roundabout way of describing things. And _that_ little tidbit of stupidity reminded me of this game I played one time, where the main character was this little blonde elf dude, and every time someone important would talk to him they'd be all "great hero of time, ye who is destined to save the world over and over again, the blue-eyed beast of awesomeness, the bearer of courage and super-cool sword skills, you who holds part of the gawd-almighty Tri-force" and I was all like, 'can't they just call the kid by his freaking name?'

He was kind of a cutie, though, if I'm remembering it properly.

ANYWAY, as you can see, even thinking about how I felt in those moments is causing me to get distracted and sidetracked, and it was a thousand times worse when I was actually going through it.

Vince sat with me, although he couldn't do much more other than be a sounding board to my frustrations since he apparently didn't read Old Wutaiian.

The documents were split up into sections, one for each of the elements and, supposedly, when I had learned to harness all of them (which I had thought I'd already done since I was pretty sure I had mastered all those different pieces of materia, but Ancient Wutai apparently ignores such shenanigans), would then lead me to the ultimate, all-encompassing, big-momma's-house, Power with a capital P.

I had chosen to start with Fire, but since the language was so flowery and over-the-top and convoluted and _dumb_, I was just sort of reading the same line over and over and over again without understanding any of the freaking words.

"Perhaps you should take a break?" Vince suggested, sometime after I had begun seething over the documents. You could tell I was seething because I was literally breathing in and out through clenched teeth, which is like pretty much the definition of "to seethe."

At his suggestion, my body agreed all of its own accord and I promptly shoved the documents away from me (I'm _very_ good with delicate things, dontcha know) and head-desked with a groan.

"Why is my life so stupid these days?" I asked the table. Vince answered me instead, which was ironic because not too long ago I probably would've compared him to a table seeing as he was all quiet and unemotional and sort of a _square_.

"I don't think it's stupid so much as it is strange. But rarely have either of our lives been normal." I could hear a tiny, wry, Vincenty-smile in his voice at the end of that.

"Strange…" I mumbled against the table, and again, I could make a comment about my lips against the table and how Vincent is sometimes rather table-like, but I'll refrain. For now, heh. Besides, his comment had stirred something all up in my Yuffie-brain and I figured it was the perfect time to ask the question that had been festering in my mind like a piece of moldy cheese. I picked my head up from its newfound friend, the table, and began picking at my nails. "Speaking of strange… d'you remember anything, uh… weird happening a little bit after you were taken by Draknor? Y'know, something weird that might've happened and might've… um… involved me?"

At this point I began focusing very intensely on his face. After all, if Vincent Valentine is going to give _anything_ away via facial expression, you have to be incredibly tuned in to catch it. It's kinda like looking for the Bigfoot Chocobo, or the Mideelan Sea Monster. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the Sea Monster was actually Emerald Weapon which is why no one can find it anymore since we KICKED ITS ASS. Ahem. Anyway.

"I… don't remember much from the beginning, other than pain." He said the words slowly, like he was weighing each of them carefully. "I don't know if they drugged me to keep me unconscious, although in theory my modifications should negate any drugs."

Something that had wrapped itself up in my innards began to plummet. "So… you don't really remember anything? Nothing at all?"

"Your arrival was the first moment I truly felt lucid. Other than that, I was… in and out of dreams and trying to keep Draknor focused on causing me pain so that he would stay away from your father."

Vince's masterful Poker Face of Impenetrable Calm was frustratingly impenetrable. But when have I ever let anything be without giving it some good pushing?

"Any… uh… interesting dreams you might so happen to recall?"

"What is it exactly that you are fishing for, Yuffie?" He asked, a slight smile curving his lips.

I scoffed to cover my panic. He wasn't supposed to question my motives! "Please, Vinnie. I fucking hate fish. And fishing. And all things having to do with fish."

"Your patron god is a water serpent…"

"Details! Tell me about these dreams!"

Hi, I'm Yuffie and my middle name is Subtle. Nice to meet you!

Silence fell over both of us as we soaked in our stubbornness. Vincent's a private guy, so I could see why he might not wanna discuss dreams with me… and me? I was just afraid he'd say he had no idea what I was talking about if I brought up my little dream-hallucination and then there would be no way for me to ever feel one hundred percent sane again.

I suppose I could blame it on drugs, like an acid flashback or something, except I'd never done acid. The most I'd ever done was smoke a little Loco Weed with Cid one time before he realized what he was actually, like really doing with me and made me go back inside and go to bed. The buzz-kill.

So anyway, we sat there staring across the table at each other, trying to gaze into the other's mind or soul or thoughts or whatever, and probably both failing miserably. At least, I _know _I was failing and I was pretty sure Vincent was, too. Unless mind-reading came with his handy-dandy, Hojo-patented, modifications.

Finally, because I'm pretty sure he thralled me once again, I caved.

"FINE! I'll tell you why I'm fishing…" I sighed, and looked away from him. "When they took you, once I regrouped with everyone and we had a plan… I had this weird, uh… kind of a hallucination I guess? I don't think it was a dream, 'cause I wasn't fully asleep or anything but… I dunno. It was just you and me talking. And it seemed really _real_, like you were in the room with me. And dream-you made some comment like, either I was nuts, or I wasn't and you were having the same dream-thing wherever you were. So… I guess I just wanted to know if I should be checking into a mental hospital or not." I looked up and glared. "And I was trying to figure all this out without telling you _why_, so that you wouldn't think I was crazy, even if I actually am, which I'm beginning to think I am, because you're staring at me and not saying anything encouraging, you big jerk. So there."

The shadow of a smile was still chilling out on his face. I was beginning to wish I'd just kept struggling through the documents rather than face a smug Vince.

"Are you ever gonna say anything?" I snapped, nerves frayed and flapping in a distant breeze, much like Vinnie's cape when he used to flounce about with it.

"I cannot say whether or not I had the same experience as you. I don't remember much from the first day or so. But when I did dream, you were there."

At this point I think I was red like a piece of summon materia, and promptly went back to studying my nails. Or the table. Or the rug. Or anything that wasn't in the general direction of Vincent's face.

"I'm definitely crazy…" I muttered, more to distract him than anything else.

The next words out of his mouth made me perk up my head and _stare_. Oh, and they made me blush some more, too.

"Yes, you are crazy. But I wouldn't have you any other way."

I couldn't keep my eyes from meeting his even if I'd wanted to. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room and I was suddenly cursing my friend, the table, for keeping Vinnie so far away from me.

As one of us was about to make the decision to remedy the table-situation—and let's be honest, as the more proactive (read: twitchy) one of the two of us, it was probably gonna be me—the doors to the library suddenly swung open.

"DINNER, YO!" Reno yelled, strolling in with his red spazz-attack dancing atop his head, and completely killing any moment Vinnie and I had going on. We leaned back, and I could've sworn I heard Vincent mutter a choice, four-letter word under his breath. My Vinnie, cursing? I was so proud.

Reno then proceeded to plop two plates down in front of us, and settle in next to Vincent with a plate of his own, smirking at me the whole time.

.xxx.

_Within the human soul sleeps an uncontrollable tide, fiery and blazing and different for each and every being. This passion embodies the element of the Flame, the Axel of Heat on which Desire turns. Only when one combines this Blazing Power, this ember of Love and Lust, with the four other Elements, will one attain the Great. Harness the Fire. Harness the Passion. Bring it to the forefront of the mind and let it flare around the inner. Draw it up and in and around and out. _

Those are some choice excerpts from the document on Fire, which I have strung together for your viewing pleasure. As you can see, they're incredibly helpful. And when I say helpful? I mean, not at fucking all. The worst part? That's me cutting out some of the more flowery tidbits.

"I. Can't. _DO THIS!_" I yelled, chucking a throwing star across the room where it probably embedded itself in one of Rufus's more valuable tomes. I smirked, before feeling frustration creep up over me again.

At some point, we had finished up dinner and Reno had wandered off, leaving me to actually start getting down to business. I had tried everything. I had tried meditating until I was almost asleep and then searching for this so-called Blazing Power. I had tried thinking my dirtiest fantasies and then dragging it up then, since there was a whole section on love and lust and all that crap. I had tried running around until I was physically heated up and almost sweating, hoping that might stir something.

All I got? Was a big, fat load of nothing.

I flopped back in my chair and glared at the offending documents. "I can't fucking do this, Vince. I don't know how, these are no help at all and the world is going to end and it'll be all my fault."

"You _can_ do this." He stated quietly from across the table.

"Tch. How do you know?" I asked in my snottiest voice, ever the mature one.

"Because I've seen you master this before." I glanced at him, wary in my anger. "Do you remember when you first mastered your Fire materia?" I shook my head. "I do. I'd… never seen a spell like it before. You were so excited. You cast it and, for me, everything else faded away. It looked like you were dancing with the flames, wielding them like an extension of yourself. In that moment, you _were _the fire. It was incredible, and powerful. It was a beauty like I'd never seen before."

He leaned over the table, eyes boring into mine. "You _can _do this, Yuffie. You just need to find that spark."

For a moment, I didn't breathe, I just drowned in his eyes and the feeling of his faith in me. And then I was kneeling on the table, hand fisted in his collar and crushing his lips to mine.

You wanna talk about fire? You wanna talk about passion? Get back to me once you've kissed Vincent Valentine. But not really, because he's mine and you can't have him. The man may be quiet, and he may be slightly emo, but he's got a reserve of emotion stored up within him, and it was all mine to experience as he kissed me back.

Every fiber within me was singing in relief as his hand found my neck and pressed me closer. Every nerve of my body was humming and tingling as my hand tangled in his hair, and somehow I ended up in his lap and I had the realization that the end of the world didn't even matter anymore. All that mattered was that we kept kissing until our lungs collapsed.

And let me tell you, it came pretty damn close. Once you get started kissing that man, it gets very hard to stop.

In that moment, I had the sharp and sudden and abso-fucking-lutely _terrifying_ realization that I was somewhere in the middle of falling in love with Vincent Valentine. Maybe I wasn't totally there yet, but I was on my way. And it was _nothing_ like what Aeris and Teef told me it would be like. It had nothing to do with waiting or being there or both or whatever. No, this was all about unwavering, unconditional _faith_.

I'd never had someone believe in me so thoroughly and so certainly as Vincent. I'd never had someone say, "Yuffie, yes you can and here's how I know." It made me want to earn that faith and that trust and that belief. It made me want to take down anything and everything that ever tried to get in my way. And it made me want to never leave my comfy place all wrapped up in Vincent's arms.

Somewhere deep and tucked away in my chest, a phoenix burst into flames, and nothing, _nothing_ could touch me.

When we finally pulled back from each other, I kept my eyes closed for a few moments longer, just relishing. "So… is this the part where you tell me you're too sin-filled and no good for me and that we can't actually be together?" I asked quietly, pressing my forehead against his.

He chuckled, low and rough. "I've spent the past few weeks watching you in action, Yuffie…and plenty of time back during Meteor as well," He began. "Every time some piece of bad luck knocks you down, you pick yourself back up again, no worse for wear. In the face of that, how could I continue to wallow?" At my shaky laugh, he continued, "And I believe this is the part where I kiss you again."

We'll leave out how I actually kissed him first. My mouth was too busy with other things to correct him, anyway.

.xxx.

"You still think I can do this, right?"

A warm hand squeezed mine and I'm pretty sure all my other internal organs squeezed in happiness as well. Or maybe just my heart. I dunno.

It was about two in the morning and Vincent and I had taken our little pow-wow outside to finish up for the night. Finish up with the Fire stuff you perv, not the other stuff. Although… there had been lots of metaphorical fire involved with that stuff too if you get my drift. Insert your own lusty wink here, 'cause I can't wink lustily for shit.

Anyhoo, it had been decided that if I was gonna try harnessing the Blazing Power of whatever the fuck, I should probably do it outside instead of in a library since, ya know, books are all super combustible and stuff.

The grounds were pitch black, and if it weren't for Vincent's unfair ability to see just fine in the dark, I'm pretty sure I would've face planted about ten times on our way out there. We stopped a good distance from the house and I looked up, admiring the stars. Somewhere up there was where Leviathan had gotten these powers in the first place. And somewhere, deep in the earth below my feet, was where Quezacotl—and now Draknor—had gotten his. And now, it was officially time for me to get my ass in gear so I could fight this thing.

Play time was fucking over.

_Like casting with materia_, I thought to myself, closing my eyes and sucking in a huge breath. _Which you've done twelve billion times before. This is gonna be easy._ Releasing it, I probed inside with my mind. Vincent's hands found my shoulders and I dug deeper.

Instead of searching for a magic orb set within a weapon or piece of armor, I searched down within myself for that place that had flared to life while I was kissing Vincent. It was like tunneling through felt blankets toward a tiny flame at the center. I was pulling back the layers, thick and muzzy and muted, searching and searching and searching. It seemed to take forever, but maybe it was only a few moments and then I found it, a tiny little wisp of Fire. I cradled it in my hands, a smile sliding onto my cheeks.

There's always a moment, right before you feel intense pain, when your mind or your subconscious or whatever goes _"oh, shit." _In that moment? Mine said "Oh, _fuck_."

And then flames erupted along my arms and a feral scream ripped itself from my throat and heat was flaring in every part of my body, woven into my muscles and tendons and bones and _life force_ and I couldn't stop _screaming_. My head fell back and my arms shot out to the sides and all I could see was red-orange _heat_. Every muscle in my body seized up and screamed along with me and I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't feel anything but fire and pain and death. And then I was on my knees and puking and my arms were still encircled in fire, spiraling from elbow to wrist and when I put my fingers to my mouth they came back sticky and wet and _red_.

A second later it was all gone, and I was simply left vomiting blood into the grass as Vincent knelt beside me, half trying to rub away the hurt and half afraid to even touch me.

I managed to choke out a tortured, "I don't think I want this anymore, Vinnie," before I keeled over and fell into darkness.

.xxx.

AN: Ha! And you thought this chap was just gonna be all about teh fluff. But see now? Didn't I tell you to have faith in me over the mystical powers? Would I ever turn this story into a cliché, Mary-Sue infested piece of bleh? The answer to that is no, I wouldn't. Thanks go out to my FABULOUS reviewers from the last chapter: **CupofTeaforAliceandHatter, serenbach, LiveLifeLikeNeverBefore, MadBlossomingPrincess, What A Lovely Disaster, Le Requiem, wanderingmusician, xXHellfireRavenXx, realestboo, and myeve123! **You all make my day and my life and this story complete. Also, I apologize for the delay in posting—I haven't had internet for the past 5ish days due to a massive storm in my area -_-

Anyhoo, I gave you fluff so give Big Momma some lovin! And when I say Big Momma, I mean me and when I say lovin, I mean reviews.


	11. Chapter 10

**AN:** This has now been proofread! Although there may still be a few typos since I am, unfortunately, Beta-less… *cries*

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, nothing at all! I disclaim everything and give all its claims to Square.

.xxx.

I was sitting in a room, staring a fire. It burned, and burned and I think it maybe seared off half of my retinas, and even when all I could see was the fire, orange and red and flickering and _burning_, when my eyes wanted to shrivel away from it like little raisins in my head, I couldn't look away.

From far away, I heard someone call my name.

I turned, finally, only to be faced with ice.

The cold was a welcome relief from the flames. There's so much depth to ice, if you think about it; layers of blue and white and pale water, twisty and rippling, and frozen forever. Unmoving. Unchanging. Just as quickly as the fire had grabbed my attention, I was drawn to the ice, unable to move away from the column of frozen water.

I heard the voice again, and my focus shattered. There was earth beneath my feet and I relished the feeling—warm, muddy earth squelching between my toes. A wind ruffled my hair and I basked in that, too.

Fire behind me, Ice ahead, Earth Below and Air all around.

But then the Fire melted the Ice and the Water surged to cover me and the Earth and the Wind disappeared and the Lightning struck and I was screaming, screaming, screaming, writhing as the shocks pulsed through my system, and wanting to die all over again, and one thought hit me harder than anything.

_I'm Alone._

_ Vinnie…_

It was at this point that my mind said, "Fuck you very much," and decided to finally wake my dreaming ass up from the land of psychotic, killer, happy-fun-dream-times. The happy-fun part said with heavy sarcasm, obviously.

While waking up from a horrible dream to a plush, comfy bed is usually a fabulous thing, it is not so fabulous when one is faced with the unpleasant sight I was immediately faced with. That sight being Rufus's surprised face as he quietly entered the room.

"Ah, I see you're awake." He stated simply and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Oh my _gawd_, you have got to be, like, the most observant person I've ever met. Johnny, give the genius a prize!" I drawled snottily.

He pulled up a chair next to the bed, raising one pale eyebrow as I struggled to sit up. "There's no need for hostility, Miss Kisaragi. We wouldn't want you falling back into a coma, now would we?"

My mind came to a screeching halt. "Uh… say what about a coma?"

"You've been unresponsive for two weeks. We've all been rather worried." There was something flickering under Rufus's calm expression as he spoke but, at the time, I was too preoccupied with freaking out to really take note of it.

"TWO WEEKS? Oh sweet Leviathan I am gonna have some _major_ catch-up work to do with this stupid power stuff." My hands scrubbed tiredly at my face.

"There's still no news regarding Draknor, which may mean we still have some time." As Rufus said this, he placed a hand on my shoulder and I stiffened as though I'd been electrocuted.

It's a weird thing, to be comforted by someone who's supposed to be your enemy. Especially when said enemy has the bluest eyes you've ever seen—bluer than Cloud's and bluer than Support Materia and blue as Blizzaga—and for some reason it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room and all I could see were those blue, blue eyes and all I could feel was the hand on my shoulder.

I shoved it off, and some of the tension puffed out into nothingness, but most of it stayed.

"Don't touch me."

"My apologies."

We sat in silence, still looking at each other, and I was reminded of the ice from my dream, with its hidden depths frozen over and hidden, chilly. Yet as long as I stared at him, he remained unreadable. _He wants something_, I thought, _He wants something and I don't know what it is yet, but Leviathan help me, I will find out._

Finally, I sighed, blinking away from our impromptu staring contest. "So… if I've been sleeping for two weeks, what's been going on here?"

"As you can imagine, Valentine has been going berserk trying to find a way to wake you up. I was more interested in why you were comatose to begin with."

"Thanks ever so." I snorted, a wry smile twisting my face before I cringed. _Vinnie…_

Rufus missed my flinching, a wolfish grin brightening his features. "Don't mistake my intentions. I simply thought that if we knew the reason for your unfortunate reaction, we'd be one step closer to a way to snap you out of it."

"And did you figure out the cause?"

Here, he paused, his face closing off once again. "There, uh… seems to be an issue with the fine print." He had the tone of a man picking and choosing his words very carefully, and I zeroed in on his face again. Any levity to the taut atmosphere between us promptly died in a hole.

"And what… pray tell, Shin-Ra, is the issue with the 'fine print'?"

He leaned forward, elbows to knees and looked at me. I mean, really, really _looked_ at me.

"How much of yourself are you willing to give to take Draknor down, Yuffie?"

I could feel my lips thinning into a tiny line, hear my jaw setting in the stubborn, Kisaragi way.

"However much of me it takes. More than that. I didn't help save this planet twice to see some crazy fuck-face screw it up again. Especially not when he started off by messing with my Wutai."

I'll be the first to admit that my moral compass doesn't always point me in the right direction. Something about the magnetic fields of my kleptomaniac brain affecting it and making it tend towards thievery and lying and all those things good people aren't supposed to do. But if there's one thing I know, it's that when it comes to loyalty—to friends, to family, to Wutai—you will _never_ find someone more loyal than me. Except maybe Aeris (sweet, beautiful, sister Aeris who died for all of us), or Teef (strong, unwavering, mother Tifa who refuses to give up on anyone, _ever_), but maybe that's just the female in the three of us.

Whatever Rufus saw in my answer made him grimace and turn away. "If you want answers, meet me in the library tonight after you've had a chance to eat something and get cleaned up. Can you walk?"

"Probably." I flexed my legs experimentally beneath the sheets and everything seemed to be in working order.

"Good." Rufus stood with a flourish, making his way toward the door. "It's either walk or be carried by Reno, and I think we both know which you'd prefer."

I choked out something that was caught between a laugh and disgust, before remembering. "Wait a minute! Where's Vincent now?"

The blond turned slightly in the doorway. "Catching up on sleep. He's been watching over you for most of the past two weeks."

As Rufus finally left and all the tension fled with him, I allowed a goofy smile to slather itself all over my face. A shower was in order, and then I most definitely needed to call Tifa.

.xxx.

The dial tone droned once before it was answered. "Yuffie? Oh my god, Yuffie, please tell me you're all right!"

I winced away from the receiver as Tifa shrieked into it. "I'm fine, Teef, really! I guess I just need an uber-nap is all. Besides, a two-week coma is, like, nothing! If this was a coma-competition I would be the biggest loser, ever!"

Apparently, at hearing the dulcet tones of my obviously unharmed voice, Tifa calmed down enough to laugh. "Only you would make a joke out of something like that, Yuffie… Only you."

"Well I need to make up for the complete and utter lacking sense of humor from the rest of you! I swear to gawd, other than me, Cid's the only funny one and that's only because he curses every other word."

"Hey, I told that Tonberry joke one time that was _very_ entertaining—"

"Yeah, and it gave me nightmares for weeks!" I shuddered. "Fucking Tonberries…"

Tifa's laugh tinkled through the phone and I grinned.

"So, anyway, tell me about how things are going at Rufus's! At least, uh, how they were going before you decided to fall asleep for two solid weeks."

"Well, the dude seriously splurged when he had this place built, or bought it, or whatever. I swear, Teef, it's _so_ gaudy it's ridiculous! I mean, back when Wutai had money we wouldn't have ever done up our palaces like this. He's got _grounds_, like with grass and everything. Where the hell do you find grass in Edge? You don't, that's where. Unless you're Rufus McLoaded, apparently."

"Well, I suppose if you have the money…" I could head Tifa's Chiding Tone of Fairness and Equality coming out, which meant it was most definitely time for a subject change.

"I know, I know! Peace and love and not judging and all that. I'm just venting 'cause I don't like the guy. Anyway, that's not the important thing. The important thing… the reason I called you in the first place..." I drew out the words, grinning wide enough to split my lip. "Actually, I don't know if I should tell you or not. It's kind of a secret, I think."

"Cute, my tiny ninja friend, very cute." I could hear her pouting.

I cackled. "Okay, you really wanna know?"

"Obviously."

It was at this moment that I started getting a bit nervous. What if Tifa thought it was weird or skanky or totally wrong? I mean, there's the whole age-difference thing, even if Vinnie only _looks_ twenty-seven, he's technically, like, sixty-plus and while _I _never stopped to think it was weird didn't mean that Tifa would think the same way.

These thoughts led to my eventual word-vomit. "Well…. I, uh…. I sorta, kinda, totallykissedVinnie."

"You _WHAT?_"

"Yeah…. I kissed him. And then, um, we sort of talked, and then we just kind of made out some more, and then I guess I went into a coma. I mean, there was some other stuff that led to the coma, not the kissing, but the kissing probably could've put me into a coma since it was, ya know, like _way_ hot and intense and did I mention I think I might be, like, halfway through falling in love with him and OHMIGAWD why aren't you saying anything you totally disapprove don't you?"

I am Yuffie Kisaragi, smoothest of the smooth.

There was complete silence for the span of three heartbeats, and then Tifa burst out laughing.

"Y-Yuffie," she finally managed to choke out between giggles, "I've only been waiting for this to happen for _years_ now."

"Uh… say what now?"

"Oh, come on. I mean, I realize for a lot of the time it was just close friendship between you two, but after a while… it just seemed like you'd be sort of perfect together. Did he get all weird and give you a speech about demons and sins and how you can't be together?"

"Oddly enough… no. Which I was totally expecting. Maybe our Vin-Vin's growing up, eh?"

"You mean, _your_ Vin-Vin."

"Heh. I like it."

We chattered for a little bit longer, Tifa informing me on all the recent comings and goings of her life with Cloudy-Poo and the kids. Things had settled down since we'd left for Rufus's, and Marlene and Denzel had returned to the bar from Elmyra's. Barret was back in Corel going about life as usual. The same went for Nanaki and Cid.

"We're all still keeping an eye and an ear out for anything having to do with Draknor, though, and I know Reeve has been working overtime, sending people back to Wutai to start rebuilding."

"And Godo?"

"Still resting at Elmyra's. I think he likes it there." There was a hint of a grin in Tifa's voice and I immediately began cringing.

"Oh no, you don't think—"

"I dunno, Yuffs. Your dad kinda has it going on, in an elderly sort of way."

"Oh barf. Tifa, go have sex with Cloud or something, 'cause I'd _much_ rather picture that than Godo with _anyone_."

"Or you could go get it on with _Vinnie-kins_." She giggled.

"Do not mock my nicknames! They are, like, totally the best, and you know it, Boobs."

"I'm blown away by your creativity."

I laughed, flapping a hand that she couldn't see. "Alright, well I've kept you from your life long enough, Teefers, so I'll let you get back to it. Call me soon though, lady! It's just me and a bunch of icky boys here; I'm dying from the lack of estrogen!"

"Will do, Yuffie," She laughed, "Miss you. And take care of yourself!"

"Miss you too, Boobs." I hung up with a last cackle, Tifa's sigh being the last thing to flutter through the receiver.

"I'm not interrupting Girl-Time, am I?"

I turned towards the redhead in the doorway and beamed

"Aww, Turkey, your feminine little self could've joined in if you wanted to!"

He sauntered over to where I was sitting against the bedframe and slid down next to me. "Thanks, brat, you're so sweet!" The last two words were punctuated with a violent noogie to my scalp. "Seriously, though, how ya feelin'?"

I elbowed him gently. "Just peachy, yo." I then stuck my tongue out as he rolled his eyes.

"Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery, princess."

I smirked. "So what brings you to my bedchamber, fire-crotch? If it's lovin' you're looking for, I'm afraid I'm going to have to refuse."

At this, he laughed outright. "Not looking to get Cerberus shoved in my face, thanks. And there's some dinner for you downstairs, if you're hungry. Vincent's still sleeping, and the boss-man, er, Rufus is freaking out in the library about something. I dunno, I don't ask anymore."

I stood, stretching. "Well, dinner sounds good, and then I've got a date in the library to get the low-down on the newest developments. Care to join me with the whole eating thing? I love a little side dish of banter every now and again."

At this, Reno shook his head. "Wish I could, princess, but I'm actually taking off. Now that I know you're okay and all, it's time for me to get back to Reeve and see what help I can be over there."

"Awww, was the Turkey worried about me, hmm?" I batted my eyelashes and crossed my eyes and Reno chuckled.

"Nah, not worried. I knew you'd come out of everything okay," he paused, letting the sincerity sink in before smirking, "You're a friggin' roach Kisaragi. It'd take more than a two-week sleep-a-thon to get rid of you."

And once more, just for old time's sake, I smacked Reno in the back of the head, before squeezing him around the middle. "I'll miss you too, Turkey." I pulled back, wiping at phantom tears, "Now get out of here before I start crying all over you."

.xxx.

Dinner was quiet, but delicious, and even though I spent most of it wishing 'til my eyes hurt that Vincent would appear, he did not. In all fairness, the guy _did_ spend thirty years sleeping in a coffin, so when decides to sleep, the guy can obviously _sleep_.

It appeared that, with Reno's departure, the only living souls in the huge-ass mansion where I was currently residing were Rufus, Vincent, and yours truly, because I hadn't seen another human being in all my exploring pre-coma, and all my wandering post-comatoseness had yielded no one else either.

Bored with eating and bored with wandering alone, I ended up heading to the library yet again. And when I arrived, Rufus was pacing up a storm, just like Reno had said.

"Something eating ya?" I asked causally, leaning against a bookcase and watching him twitch.

"Yuffie," he turned, affecting his smooth-political-man persona, "why don't we have a seat?"

"Mm… you sure you wanna do that, Shin-Ra? You look pretty twitchy to me."

He smiled thinly. "Perhaps sitting down would help. And then we'll get down to some answers."

I liked answers, so I was quick to oblige. The documents from before were still sitting on the same table, although someone had taken the liberty to put a laminated sheet over a few of the pages. I took my same place. Rufus took Vincent's.

He gestured to the documents. "Yuffie… how much of this did you read before you…?"

In another time, with another man in the room, I probably would have gotten sidetracked and begun thinking about how good it had felt to kiss Vincent in this very room. But in that time, with Rufus Shin-Ra in the room, all I could focus on was blue ice-fire, and the low voice asking the questions.

"I skimmed the introduction and the section on fire. Why?"

That same, pale eyebrow lifted slightly. "Skimmed?"

I shook my head, shooting him a withering look. "Old Wutaiian is incredibly hard to read, and even more difficult to then understand once it's been translated. The sentence structure is much more complex, and many parts of the sentences become unnecessary when translated."

He cleared his throat. "When it became obvious that you weren't going to wake up anytime soon, I brought my translator back in. It took him a full week, but he managed to read through these documents in their entirety."

"And?" It was my turn to raise my eyebrows.

"I… I think you will want to read this particular section carefully." One long finger pointed to a tiny section that had been covered with a laminated page and highlighted.

I squinted my eyes, focusing on transferring the language from Old Wutaiian to Standard in my head.

_In these powers, one must put their life and from one their life shall be taken by the powers. Inch by inch, day by day, the life will wane and the power will grow. The risk gives way to the reward and it is with_—

I stopped reading, choking on something in the air. Across from me, Rufus's eyes were sad.

"How much of yourself are you willing to give to take Draknor down?" he asked again. "Because each time you channel these elements, each time you use these powers, you give a little of your life-force over to them."

My ears were ringing and my vision was getting a little fuzzy and I stared at him, really _stared_ at him and I saw sadness and longing and something else I couldn't place but I was too, too, _too_ fucked to even begin to think about those things.

"How much of yourself are you willing to give, White Rose?" His eyes were lasers, cutting through me, Blizzaga-sharp and sizzling.

"Don't call me that, Shin-Ra _scum_!" I snarled, punching the table. A slight crack ran through it and I glared at the offending wood, as though it held all my life's problems. "Don't call me that unless you want to see my thorns."

"Yuffie, then. How much?" His voice was harsh, demanding.

And I sat there, and scowled at the table, and _thought_.

And realized.

"My answer hasn't changed, Rufus." I met his eyes. "I'm going to keep on down this path for now. But I'm going to try and find another way." The air between us was crackling like a static storm. "You ask how much I'm willing to give. As much of me as it takes, and more. Now get the _fuck_ out of my face."

Once again, as he was on the threshold, about to leave, I stopped him. "Does Vincent know?"

There was a tiny hesitation from him. "No."

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Good."

.xxx.

I was left alone for quite some time. At first, I tried distracting myself from the ugly, inevitable truths staring me in the face. I thought back to the days when all I had to worry about was whether or not I'd get caught stealing some poor sucker's materia. I thought about my first days with AVALANCHE, crushing on Vinnie, reading those stupid books with Aeris and Teef, making fun of Cloud for his hair and Barret for his 'tude and Cid for his oldness and nicotine addiction.

I thought back even earlier than that, when I had first been taught how to run up a wall. I practiced everywhere. Against the palace, against the Pagoda, against the Turtle's Paradise. It was the best feeling in the world, running straight at a wall, full-tilt and being able to ascend it, flip backwards, to _fly_.

I think I was three. Maybe I was five. The point was, it was one of the best moments of my life. Can you really blame a girl for loving to fly? Sure, my patron god may be a water serpent, but I think I've always envied the birds the most.

But the human brain is a funny (read: stupid) thing, and chances are when there's something you _don't_ want to think about, your mind is just gonna fixate on that until you go chocobo-shit crazy.

Which is why I was very much glad for the distraction when the library door slammed open, and Vinnie appeared in the doorframe. The short hair and the blue suit made him look so _young_ and his eyes were huge in his pale face and he just seemed… vulnerable. It was kind of adorable.

"Yuffie…" his voice was quiet, always husky, and that whole stupid grin thing I had going on a while ago? Came back in full force.

I propelled myself up so I was sitting on the library table, legs swinging. "Hey, Vinnie! Have a nice nap?" Gawd, I am so ironic sometimes.

He was in front of me in an instant, one hand on my cheek and his eyes just taking me all in, and there was most definitely some major blushage going on with my face.

"Uh… I'm guessing you missed me?" I grinned weakly as his gaze honed in on my lips.

Adorableness gave way to sexy as he brought his mouth to mine. Seriously, dear listener, find yourself a monster man. Or… monster woman, if that's how you swing.

For a while, nothing was said. Not verbally at least. When we did surface from each other, I was dizzy and giddy and wondering how we were ever just simply friends when there was so much more between us.

"Don't do that again." He whispered hoarse and gravelly. "Just don't."

"Not planning on it." And then we were lost again.

Still, I couldn't shake the desperate, gnawing voice in the back of my head chiming, _'Oh yes you are, Yuffie. Oh yes you are.' _

From then on, I was drowning in kisses… and guilt.

.xxx.

When I returned to my bedroom for the night, everything was just as I'd left it, save for a single, white rose on the bedside table.

Curiously, I picked it up, wondering when Vince had had the time to leave it.

Lying beneath its milky petals was a note, written in distinctly non-Vinnie handwriting.

All it said, in clear, crisp font was, _'Be Strong.'_

I glanced at the rose in my hand again. It still had its thorns.

.xxx.

**AN:** I hope this lives up to expectations, as I'm pretty sure this is my favorite chapter to date. I'm also positive that writing this story is causing me to develop a major thing for Rufus… O.O

Thanks go out to my awesome, fabulous, amazing, beautiful, handsome, terrific (etc., etc., etc.,) reviewers: **MadBlossomingPrincess, myeve123, SoranoYukinaSia, serenbach, LiveLifeLikeNeverBefore, Le Requiem, Dontgotaclue88, realestboo, BlueRaven, and MoonlightOrange666! **Any thoughts (critiques, criticisms, compliments, whatever!) on this chapter would be muchly appreciated, so don't hesitate to hit that little review button!

'Til next time (which will be sooner than a month from now, I promise)

~Bru


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